Nursing home to workers: Get vaccine or lose your job

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s largest nursing home operator told its workers this week they will have to get COVID-19 vaccinations to keep their jobs — a possible shift in an industry that has largely rejected compulsory measures for fear of triggering an employee exodus that could worsen already dangerous staffing shortages.

The new requirement at Genesis Healthcare, which has 70,000 employees at nearly 400 nursing homes and senior communities, is the clearest sign yet that such places may be willing to take that risk amid the surging delta variant and the fact that more than 40% of U.S. nursing home workers still have not gotten the shot.

Some experts are calling for mandatory vaccinations at nursing homes, warning that unprotected staff members are endangering residents. Even residents who have been inoculated are vulnerable because many are elderly and frail, with weak immune systems.

More than 1,250 nursing home residents across the U.S. were infected with COVID-19 in the week ending July 25, double the number from the week earlier, and 202 died, according to federal data.

“It’s so easy now to say, ’Well, Genesis is doing it. Now we’ll do it,'" said Brian Lee, who leads Families for Better Care, an advocacy group for long-term care residents. "This is a big domino to fall.”

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of health law at Georgetown University, said he likewise foresees a “snowball effect.” He said resisting vaccination mandates at this point is “unconscionable.”

Some local governments are taking the decision out of the industry’s hands, with Massachusetts and Denver announcing mandatory vaccinations at nursing homes this week.

The question has become more urgent as the highly contagious delta variant drives up new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. to about 90,000 a day on...