The news that our four hospitals have high rates of vaccination among their staff is great to hear and shows their efforts, and the vaccine mandate, have worked.

It was critical to the safety of everyone who needed to use one of these facilities that the staff be vaccinated against COVID-19. Staff is regularly in contact with patients who were sick, immunocompromised or at high risk for bad outcomes if they contract the virus. Having a high percentage of their staff vaccinated was important for the community to be able to trust they would be safe in our local hospitals.

It was a difficult decision and came with some blow-back, with protesters demonstrating in front of St. Mary’s following the decision and threatening to quit. Ultimately, according to reporting from the Sentinel’s Charles Ashby, not many followed through on those threats.

“…Family Health West estimates approximately 3% of our 600 plus or minus employees left citing the vaccine requirement,” said FHW spokeswoman Heather Benjamin. “Employee departures have not impacted patient care, although staffing shortages continue to be a challenge in several areas of our organization.”

The hospitals deserve credit for sticking with the plan.

Some may point to the several hundred religious exemptions given to say these institutions aren’t as safe as they should be. However, unvaccinated staff will still need to take regular COVID tests to ensure patient safety. It’s also important to respect the strongly held religious beliefs of members of our community.

So with the success of this mandate, should it be used in other business settings?

We support the hospitals’ decision to mandate the vaccine because of the at-risk patients they are treating, but that’s not the case in every industry and we don’t support a one-size-fits-all approach.

What worked for the hospitals may work in other industries that have older, more at-risk customers. Other industries that aren’t in contact with those types of people may find more success with education and incentives. Business leaders need the freedom to figure out the right approach for their business.

It will be a tough call because people tend to pull the other way when they’re forced to do something, which might explain our low vaccination rates. Those rates are really hurting us now.

Just 53% of Mesa County’s residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to Mesa County Public Health. Our daily cases are over 100 again and similar to the spike we saw last January, before the vaccine was widely available. The numbers are still going up.

Our percent positive rate is just under 10% and 21 people have died over the past two weeks, more than 80% of them were unvaccinated. All of our staffed ICU beds are full, according to Mesa County Public Health.

This is preventable.

An executive order from President Biden requiring large employers to have their workers vaccinate or take regular COVID-19 tests is currently tied up in the legal system.

We don’t know when or if that will be implemented, but until then it’s still up to you.

It is up to you to help bring an end to this pandemic. It is up to you to protect the community from a deadly disease. It is up to you to get vaccinated.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial board