Fauci pushes vax mandates for healthcare workers, calls hesitation in the field 'inexplicable'

Dr. Anthony Fauci is backing the idea of requiring vaccines for all healthcare workers who see patients, calling it "inexplicable" that anyone in the field would fail to get the shot.

During a Sunday appearance on "Meet the Press," the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, "I'm very much in favor of mandating — if you want to see patients and you want to participate in health care, you need to get vaccinated, period." 

"I see patients at the [NIH] Clinical Center," noted the White House medical adviser. "If I don’t get the flu vaccine or hepatitis vaccine, I'm not allowed to see patients. So this isn't something that's brand new with Covid." He added that he finds it "inexplicable" why some healthcare workers would refuse the vaccine.

Some 1,500 hospitals around the country (roughly 25%) have thus far required their employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But at the same time, an increasing number of states are passing laws to ban vaccine mandates and passports.