CHI St Alexius Health requires COVID-19 vaccine for workers; delta continues surge in North Dakota bismarcktribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bismarcktribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Sanford Health will require that all employees receive a COVID-19 vaccination by Nov. 1 or risk losing their job.
The hospital system employs 3,800 workers across its Bismarck region, which includes central and western North Dakota and Sanford Medical Center in Bismarck. It says 90% of its clinicians and 70% of its nurses have been vaccinated already. The best thing we can do for our patients is to take good care of our employees, said Dr. Chris Meeker, chief medical officer for Sanford in Bismarck. We need to have our employees healthy and safe.
He added that Sanford is monitoring the situation in Arkansas and Missouri, which have emerged as coronavirus hot spots in recent weeks amid surges in both cases and hospitalizations.
Live Updates: Coronavirus in North Dakota prairiepublic.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from prairiepublic.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Tessa Johnson, a registered nurse in Dickinson and president of the North Dakota Nurses Association, said her group tries to educate its members on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, which have ample evidence behind them at this point.
“I’m surprised and shocked at the hesitancy yet,” she said. “The hesitancy I see with younger females still scared of fertility problems,” she said, adding that there is no evidence to support such worries. “People are still hesitant because of that.”
A lot of myths and misinformation circulating on social media are fueling much of the hesitancy, Johnson said. Overcoming that is difficult. “That’s what scares me,” she said.
Several Democratic lawmakers back a bill that would allow for medically assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. If passed, North Dakota would join eight other states, the District of Columbia and Canada in legalizing the practice.