We mentioned last week that Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas has introduced a bill to repeal the requirement that health care workers get vaccinated or get fired. Hospitals and clinics can lose their Medicare and Medicaid payments if they don’t comply with the edict. Dr. Marshall now has enough cosponsors to force a floor vote, likely in early January.

The CMS mandate has been challenged and mostly lost in court across the country, and many health systems have welcomed unvaccinated doctors and nurses to avoid a capacity crunch.

The CDC has not updated their estimate of unvaccinated health care workers in a couple of months, but as of September 15 they found that only 70% were unvaccinated, with the lowest vaccination rates in rural critical access hospitals.

Consider that doctors and nurses who have worked through the pandemic have bene exposed to COVID literally thousands of times, have likely had the disease and recovered. Congress should respect medical professionals to make their own medical judgments, not fire them for disagreeing with the president. Who do you think knows more about the risks associated with COVID and the vaccines: Medical professionals or politicians?