Summary
Experts say it’s not surprising vaccination rates are so high among hospital workers because many states including California have long required hospital employees get other vaccines, such as for the flu and hepatitis B. People who work in hospitals tend to be in tune with public health goals, and have easy access to vaccines, because they can get them at their workplace, said Michelle Mello, a professor of law and medicine at Stanford who researches the effect of laws on health outcomes.
While vaccine requirements have long existed in health care settings and in schools for childhood immunizations, there have been very few times when, as now, adults were required to get vaccinated. One prominent recent exception, Mello noted, was when New York City health officials in 2019 required measles shots for residents in predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn that were seeing outbreaks of the disease.
Some Bay Area cities are also reporting a rise in vaccination rates after mandates.
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