Health care worker vaccine mandates are necessary: Dr. Lahita
Some NYC health care workers have been fired due to being unvaccinated
New York Medical College Professor Dr. Bob Lahita weighs in on employee vaccine mandates.
New York Medical College Professor Dr. Bob Lahita believes vaccine mandates for health care workers are necessary despite the policy receiving some pushback.
"Police officers, fire department people, nurses and doctors should have a mandate of the vaccine because they're in close contact with infected people every hour of the day," Lahita said on FOX Business' "Varney and Co."
The doctor said it’s "unfathomable" to him that workers in the health care industry would not get the vaccine.
"I don't think it should be mandated for the general public," he added. "The public has a right to refuse something that's injected into them."
ANTI-VACCINE-MANDATE PROTESTORS MARCH NYC STREETS ON EVE OF ENFORCEMENT FOR HEALTH CARE WORKERS
New York Medical College Professor Dr. Bob Lahita provides insight into the safety of COVID vaccines for pregnant women and the importance of vaccine mandates for health care workers.
Several protests have been sparked in New York City recently over Gov. Kathy Hochul’s statewide order requiring health care workers to receive at least one coronavirus vaccine jab by Sept. 27 or face termination. The new governor told unvaccinated New York health care workers the state will be "replacing people" who do not comply.
There are plans to have medically-trained National Guard members fill in the gap for those health care workers either placed on leave or relieved of their jobs.
NEW YORK GOV. COULD TAP NATIONAL GUARD TO REPLACE UNVACCINATED HEALTH CARE WORKERS
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 10: New York Governor Kathy Hochul (C) attends the 9/11 Security Briefing at the One Police Plaza in New York City, United States on September 10, 2021. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Lahita supports COVID vaccine requirements despite possible staffing shortages and likened the policy to past flu vaccine mandates in hospitals.
"We mandate the flu vaccine in addition to the COVID vaccine, and we are mandating now the booster for those employees who are over 65," he told host Stuart Varney. "So, yeah, it's very important."
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Vials of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are ready to be injected to medical staff at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Fox News’ Breck Dumas contributed to this article.