UNC Lenoir Health Care institutes vaccine mandate for employees October 29, 2021

UNC Lenoir Health Care announced Friday, October 29 a mandate to require the Covid-19 vaccine for all employees, affiliated providers, students, volunteers, and vendors.  The decision is a result of the upcoming announcement that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will require vaccinations for all employees of health care organizations that accept Medicare and Medicaid payments.  The action aligns with UNC Health and thousands of other healthcare organizations across the country and across North Carolina.  The decision is consistent with UNC Lenoir’s mission to provide exceptional care for the people we serve.  

UNC Lenoir Health Care made this decision for four key reasons: 

1. The organization is committed to keeping patients, employees, and the community safe and healthy. 

2. COVID-19 is a very dangerous and potentially deadly disease that is highly contagious and spreads rapidly. 

3. The COVID-19 vaccine has been deemed to be safe and effective by the vast majority of reputable public health and infectious disease experts throughout the United States and the world. 

4. Most importantly, we care about our employees and their health and safety. The COVID-19 vaccine can help protect each of us from getting sick or severely ill with COVID-19 or exposing those around us to this potentially lethal virus. 

“We believe this decision is consistent with the mission and values of UNC Lenoir and is the next logical and necessary step to keep our patients and teammates safe during this COVID-19 pandemic. We realize the decision to obtain a vaccine, or requiring others to get vaccinated is complex with many medical, social, political, economic, and religious ramifications. But we also believe the vast majority of experts in all of these fields support COVID-19 vaccinations”, stated Robert Enders, President and CEO of UNC Lenoir in a letter to employees. 

A new policy requiring a COVID-19 vaccine has been added to the already required vaccines such as MMR, Varicella, Tdap, Tetanus, and Flu. All reasonable efforts are being made to ease this transition and enforce this new policy including a reasonable time period to get vaccinated along with limited exemptions for bona fide medical or religious reasons.