"The cardiovascular community supports and encourages health care systems to require COVID-19 vaccinations for health care and long-term care employees. The data is clear that the COVID-19 vaccine's benefits far outweigh any risks and that it is our best tool to end this pandemic, but many, including many health care workers, have made the choice to not get vaccinated.

Health care workers have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic, sacrificing their own health, well-being and, in many cases, their lives, to care for patients around the world suffering from coronavirus. But the fight is not over. With the recent surge of new cases fueled by variants and the unvaccinated, patients are again overwhelming hospitals, and many are dying.

The cardiovascular community believes that we cannot allow unvaccinated health care workers to put the vulnerable, the immunocompromised and unvaccinated children at risk within a health care setting. Patients with cardiovascular disease are susceptible to serious adverse reactions from COVID-19 infection, and all patients rely on well-functioning care teams that have healthy staff fulfilling critical roles.

Unvaccinated health care workers therefore place patients at risk, both directly and indirectly, making the call for the cardiovascular care team to get vaccinated especially urgent. Health care institutions have an ethical responsibility to protect the health and safety of their patients and their communities.

As our nation and the world continue to suffer from COVID-19 and increasing variants, we strongly believe all health care workers should become vaccinated and support requiring COVID vaccination as a condition of health system employment and vendor contracting."