AUSTIN — Texas physicians and health professionals today called on Gov. Greg Abbott to rescind his executive order from Monday prohibiting any entities in the state — including hospitals — from requiring their workers or customers to get vaccinated against COVID-19. They criticized Gov. Abbott’s politically driven anti-vaccine policies for threatening more COVID-19 cases in the already hard hit state.

“Widespread vaccinations are the best way to protect people against COVID-19, especially as we race to head off dangerous new mutations and variations that increase the risk of sickness for all of us, and Gov. Abbott’s counterproductive order only hogties physicians and health professionals from doing everything we can to save lives,” said Dr. Audrey Nath, a neurologist and neuroscientist in Houston. “As physicians, we urge Gov. Abbott to reverse course and repeal his order so doctors, health professionals and hospitals can do our jobs and protect people from a dangerous, deadly disease. Gov. Abbott and our elected leaders in the Legislature should be doing everything they can to save lives, and that’s getting more people protected via vaccination, not taking away the tools we have to do so.”

Abbott’s order threatens to punish employers that implement vaccine requirements and calls on the Legislature to pass a state law prohibiting vaccine mandates. Meanwhile, only around 53 percent of Texans are fully vaccinated, lagging many states that have surpassed 60 percent. In addition to prohibiting vaccine protocols, Abbott has also banned mask requirements. 

“Gov. Greg Abbott’s war against vaccinations and other science-based safety measures that protect people against COVID-19 only helps the virus spread, evade our defenses and threaten to keep infecting and killing Texans for months and years to come,” said Dr. Keith Marton, an internist and epidemiologist in Dallas. “By singling out COVID-19 vaccinations for exclusion simply to score political points, Gov. Abbott’s order also raises serious questions about the commitment of Texas political leadership to vaccinations as a whole and whether politicians are serious about protecting children and vulnerable populations from preventable diseases. Our experience has shown that vaccinations against many diseases, including COVID-19, are the best way to prevent those diseases from spreading, ultimately suppressing them to the point where the risk of getting infected are as close to zero as possible. As a nation, we have done this before, practically eliminating diseases such as polio, measles, smallpox, typhoid, and tetanus, to name but a few. Unfortunately, instead of building up our defenses against COVID-19 and despite all the evidence, Gov. Abbott is failing in his duty to protect the safety and security of every Texan.”

The physicians listed some of the main benefits of widespread vaccinations:

• Vaccinations protect individuals from getting COVID-19 or from becoming seriously ill or dying of COVID-19
• Vaccinations prevent individuals from spreading the COVID-19 virus to others
• Vaccinations add to the number of people in the community who are protected from getting COVID-19
• Vaccinations prevent the COVID-19 virus from spreading and replicating, which allows it to mutate and possibly become more resistant to vaccines

Data shows that vaccination rates are high when they are required through policies such as mandates or so-called “nudges,” where alternatives to vaccinations are offered, such as daily testing and other requirements. Vaccine mandates at places such as hospitals and health care settings contribute to very high compliance rates, exceeding 94 percent. Under Abbott’s order, hospitals and health care entities will not be allowed to require their staff to be vaccinated, prompting the Texas Hospital Association to criticize the order as putting patients at risk of infection.

“By preventing employers and private businesses from using protocols to keep their customers and employees safe, Gov. Abbott’s order unnecessarily exposes Texans to more disease, suffering, and potential death,” said Dr. Joanna Schwartz, a pediatric emergency medicine specialist in Austin. “As physicians who care for COVID-19 patients and who witness the devastation from this virus every day, we strongly urge Gov. Abbott and all policymakers to do everything we can to protect health, save lives and help end our families’ suffering. Getting a large enough percentage of the population vaccinated is the only way to end this pandemic. Gov. Abbott’s order means cancer patients could be exposed to COVID-19 from an unvaccinated employee, a child with a chronic medical condition could be at risk from an unvaccinated adult and grandma in assisted living could get sick from an unvaccinated worker. By refusing to implement two of the best defenses we have against COVID-19, including vaccine and mask requirements, Gov. Abbott wants Texas to bury our heads in the sand while COVID-19 continues to unnecessarily sicken and kill people  and alter how we live our lives.”

Current Texas law requires children to be vaccinated against 11 diseases before entering Pre-K-12 schools and child care settings, including polio, measles and hepatitis A and B.

COVID-19 has killed more than 67,000 Texans and infected 4.1 million people in the state. Texas’ positivity rate remains alarmingly high, at more than 12 percent, far higher than states that have vaccinated more of their populations. An upcoming peer-reviewed analysis estimates more than 14,000 Texas children are now orphaned because they lost parents or caregivers who died from COVID-19, the second highest total in the nation.

About the Committee to Protect Health Care

The Committee to Protect Health Care, formerly known as the Committee to Protect Medicare, is a national mobilization of doctors, health care professionals, and advocates who are building a pro-patient health care majority in Congress and in states so that we can live in an America where everyone has the health care they need to thrive. To learn more: www.committeetoprotect.org