To End the Pandemic, ASCP Urges That All Americans Be Vaccinated

The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) believes that the emergence of the Delta variant requires a far more aggressive response by the federal, state, and local governments, as well as businesses and schools. After much serious and thoughtful discussion, we put forth three recommendations we believe are necessary to end this pandemic. But first, let’s review the United States’ current situation.

The spread of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Delta variant, responsible for 93 percent of recent COVID-19 cases, has caused an alarming increase in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. COVID-19 cases, based on a seven-day moving average, were up 64 percent on July 31, compared to the prior week and are about 480 percent higher than their low in June 2021.¹  As of July 28, almost 35 million known COVID-19 infections have been reported in the U.S., and more than 614,000 people have died. The Delta variant has also resulted in a significant increase in the number of infections and hospitalizations of children. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently reported that approximately 72,000 children and teens contracted COVID-19 during the week of July 22-29, an increase of 82 percent over the previous week.

It is because of numbers like these that ASCP joined with more than 50 other medical specialty societies in calling on all healthcare and long-term care organizations to mandate that all of their employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. We agree with countless medical experts that the single most important and effective public health strategy to end the pandemic is to increase vaccination coverage. So far, more than 192 million Americans (68 percent) have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and more than 165 million of eligible Americans (58 percent) are fully vaccinated.²

In recent weeks, fear of the Delta variant has spurred some unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated, particularly those in states with the lowest vaccination rates. These individuals have recognized the vaccine is about saving lives, and not political. Unfortunately, current vaccination totals are nowhere near the levels needed to reach herd immunity. The Delta variant is so much more infectious than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2,³  and as a result infectious disease experts now believe that “upwards of 80 percent” of the U.S. population will need to be vaccinated to end the pandemic in the U.S.^4,5   

A significant number of unvaccinated Americans indicate they believe the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus but some say they would consider getting vaccinated once if it was clear to them that the vaccine was safe and effective. ASCP wants to reassure these individuals that this is the case. More than 4.25 BILLION doses of COVID vaccines have been administered world-wide, including to more than 192 MILLION people in the United States, and serious side effects have been exceedingly rare.^6,7 Moreover, while so-called “breakthrough infections” of the vaccinated have occurred in some individuals (these infections tend to be much less severe than for unvaccinated individuals), the focus must be on the fact that the unvaccinated account for approximately 97 percent of all hospitalizations and 99 percent of all deaths.⁸ Also, the vaccines available in the U.S. have been reviewed not just by scores of U.S. doctors and scientists but by medical experts in countless other nations. We are not aware of a single reputable medical organization that advises against getting any of the vaccines approved for use in the United States, except perhaps for a very small subset of patients with very specific medical issues. In documenting their safety and efficacy, these vaccines have undergone a rigorous level of clinical review previously unseen. 

As a result, ASCP is outlining here three recommendations. First, every eligible American must be vaccinated. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is soon expected to fully approve at least one COVID-19 vaccine and when it does, we urge that vaccination requirements become the norm. As a result of the staggering amount of clinical data attesting to the safety and efficacy of the vaccines granted emergency use authorization by the FDA, the federal government, state and local governments, businesses, and schools have already begun imposing vaccination requirements. If vaccination numbers do not significantly increase, the pandemic will continue, children who currently cannot be vaccinated will become infected and some will die, and the chance that additional, potentially even more infectious, SARS-CoV-2 variants may emerge becomes even more likely.

Second, a concerning development has arisen at the state level, where at least 16 states have enacted some form of a ban on COVID-19 vaccine or related mandates, including blocking employment-based mandates (such as barring vaccine requirements for state and/or local government employees), school vaccination or mask requirements, or vaccine passport requirements. These short-sighted state laws eliminate the best tools we have to address the spread of the pandemic. Indeed, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson⁹ recently acknowledged this when he said that as kids will be back in school, he now regrets having signed legislation barring Arkansas’s schools from requiring masks. Children under the age of 12, he said, are among his state’s most vulnerable because they are not yet eligible for vaccination. These laws prolong the pandemic and threaten the health and safety of every American. They should be repealed or overturned immediately. 

Lastly, ASCP supports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask guidance that suggest that Americans, regardless of vaccination status, should wear a mask “in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission.” Masks (worn properly) help save lives and limit the spread of the virus, and the data support this.

Before more people die, our elected leaders need to take serious and aggressive action to ensure that Americans get vaccinated, so we can end the pandemic, end patient and family suffering, end the fatalities, and get back to the lives we had before COVID-19.
1.  COVID-19 Data Weekly Review, Reported Cases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 31: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html. 
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html.
3.  Court, E., Delta Seen to Push Herd Immunity Threshold Above 80%. Aug. 3, 2021. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-03/delta-s-spread-seen-pushing-herd-immunity-threshold-above-80.
4. Medscape: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/955939. https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/delta-may-push-herd-immunity-threshold-over-80-experts-say.html. 
5.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/virus-unvaccinated-americans.html.
6. Select Adverse Actions Reported After COVID-19 Vaccination. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Updated August 2, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html.
7.  Safety of COVID-19 Vaccinations, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Updated Aug. 2. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/safety-of-vaccines.html. 
8.  Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated, by Carla K. Johnson and Mike Stobbe, APNews, 
https://www.vox.com/22602039/breakthrough-cases-covid-19-delta-variant-masks-vaccines.
9.  Arkansas Governor Wants To Reverse A Law That Forbids Schools To Require Masks, Josie Fischels, National Public Radio, Aug. 4, 20218:23 PM ET: https://www.npr.org/2021/08/04/1024939859/arkansas-governor-reverse-law-let-schools-require-masks.