Campaign Speech Topic: Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for Healthcare Workers

Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for Healthcare Workers Student Name Institutional Affiliation Course Name Instructor Date Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for Healthcare Workers Ladies and gentlemen, It is a great honor to stand before you to address a global issue that has affected our livelihood and the well-being of the entire community: the resumption of mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers. Although COVID-19's impacts are less severe now than in 2020, the pandemic is still with us. Between July 10 and August 6, 2023, WHO reported 1.5 million new cases of COVID-19. WHO says the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 has risen to 6.9 million (World Health Organization, 2023). Among the most affected groups are the healthcare workers. WHO reported approximately 180,000 healthcare worker deaths related to COVID-19 from January 2020 to May 2021 (World Health Organization, 2023). These deaths were a tragic loss in the healthcare community, and we are yet to fill the gap. Thus, COVID-19 persists as a threat to the healthcare community, calling for urgent interventions to enhance the safety of healthcare professionals. Studies present vaccines as the most potent preventative weapon against Covid-19. However, mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers continues to face significant resistance among practitioners. Data show that, of every five healthcare workers, only two are vaccinated against COVID-19 globally. This hesitancy to get vaccinated among healthcare workers leads to low vaccinations among members of the public. Healthcare practitioners are the most trusted source of information for COVID-19 vaccines. Research finds that healthcare workers positively influence patients to receive vaccines. Rutten et al. (2021) found higher vaccination rates and vaccine acceptance among communities that received recommendations from healthcare workers. Latkin et al. (2021) also found that clinicians significantly influence health-related social norms and perceptions likely to impact vaccine acceptance positively. These research works help illuminate the need for healthcare providers to receive COVID-19 vaccines to protect the community against the pandemic and its related effects. Thus, we need to accelerate vaccinations for all healthcare workers. Doing so does not protect healthcare providers only but the broader community at large. Vaccinations ensure that practitioners cannot contract the virus from or transmit it to the patients. That implies practitioners receiving the vaccine is not a personal choice. Instead, it is an ethical and professional obligation (Rutten et al., 2021). Remember, as healthcare workers, beneficence and nonmaleficence guide our actions. Beneficence calls us to perform actions that benefit our clients and promote actions that affect community health positively (Jalilian et al., 2023). We find the COVID-19 vaccine beneficial to safeguarding our health and the community we serve. Nonmaleficence calls us not to cause harm to our clients (Jalilian et al., 2023). Failure to take the vaccine risks practitioners contracting the virus, which we can transmit to vulnerable patients such as older adults, patients with underlying health conditions, or immunocompromised individuals. Thus, accepting the vaccine fulfills our responsibility to promote and safeguard public health. In addition, mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for healthcare workers call for collaboration between research and healthcare departments. The COVID-19 virus continues to emerge in different variants, the most recent being Omicron (Latkin et al., 2021). These variants reduce vaccine effectiveness in the fight against infections. The challenge poses the need for the development of additional vaccines that will enhance protection against the virus. The development of these dos...