Senator Gallivan Joins Colleagues in Calling on CDC to Reevaluate COVID-19 Regs

Senator Patrick M. Gallivan (R-C, Elma) and members of the Senate Minority Conference have sent a letter urging the New York Congressional Delegation to ensure the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) takes action and reevaluates its executive agency regulations relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter stresses the need and importance to reevaluate the regulations that established COVID-19 vaccination requirements for staff at Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers.

“Health care facilities in New York and across the country continue to face a workforce shortage, which is affecting patient care and increasing healthcare costs,” Senator Gallivan said.  “The state and federal governments must reexamine the COVID-19 vaccine mandates placed on health care personnel.”

Over the past three years, there has been great strain on the state economy and workforce. Dedicated health care workers unjustly lost their livelihoods after giving so much throughout the pandemic, and the vaccination requirement only made the state of emergency worse in New York. Reevaluating mandates such as these, given the new CDC guidelines, is crucial as we move out of the pandemic and glean wisdom from this horrendous experience. 

“Throughout the entirety of the pandemic, our health care workers served on the frontlines every day to help those in need. Now, we are asking for the New York Congressional to partner with us, on a federal level, in advocating for our displaced health care workers. The NYS Senate Republican Conference will continue to push for the reevaluation of the vaccination mandates here in New York. We must not allow ineffective decisions made at the height of the pandemic to continue to negatively affect our health care sector,” concluded the Senators.

Meanwhile, Senator Gallivan and his colleagues will continue to call for ending the Governor’s emergency powers, ending the state emergency itself, and restoring legislative checks and balances to the State Capitol.

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