WH COVID Coordinator: ‘A Lot of Healthcare Facilities’ Will Mandate Annual COVID Vaccines

On Wednesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” outgoing White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha predicted that “a lot of healthcare facilities” will end up mandating the coronavirus vaccine on an annual basis.

Co-host Amna Nawaz asked, “If it should be something that’s annual, as [the] FDA seems to indicate it will be, is that the kind of thing you think states should start to, say, require for children, the same way they do for other immunizations?”

Jha responded, “This is going to be a decision by local districts, schools, states. Flu shots are largely not required by very many folks, except in health care. So, as a physician, my hospital has required a flu shot every year. I would have gotten it anyway, but I was required to. I think you’ll see that in a lot of facilities — in a lot of healthcare facilities. But the flu shot, the COVID shot, both of them are going to end up being things that are going to make an enormous difference. And I think you’re going to see strong encouragement. I don’t know that we’re going to see a lot of requirements. I think some local districts might decide to do that. But I think that’s probably not likely.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett