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Some of the largest U.S. hospital systems have dropped Covid-19 vaccine mandates for staff after a federal judge temporarily halted a Biden administration mandate that healthcare workers get the shots. Hospital operators including HCA Healthcare Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corp. as well as nonprofits AdventHealth and the Cleveland Clinic are dropping the mandates. (Whelan and Evans, 12/13)

In other news about hospital mandates —

More than 600 employees at the Department of Correction may opt to test weekly in lieu of being vaccinated against COVID-19, a CT Mirror analysis has found, because the state is not requiring prison medical staff to apply for medical or religious exemptions. That policy is inconsistent with rules for the majority of health care workers at the departments of Veteran’s Affairs, Children and Families, Mental Health and Addiction Services, and Developmental Services. About 3,700 workers at those agencies must have exemptions approved by the state if they want to test weekly instead of getting vaccinated, as per Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive order. The governor’s office confirmed that correctional employees are not bound by this rule. (Pananjady and Lyons, 12/14)

Amaskless audience congregated at Montana State University Billings' Petro Theater Monday night for a controversial presentation by Bryan Ardis. Big Sky Liberty Alliance, a group of Billings nurses who originally organized to oppose vaccine mandates for health care workers, reached out to Ardis and asked him to speak in Billings. About 100 people attended the event. (Schabacker, 12/13)

Half of Americans say it should be illegal for companies to deny service or employment to the unvaccinated, according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. This carries real political risk for Democrats as President Biden's mandates on federal workers and large employers meet legal challenges across the country and Republicans use try to use the implementation of mandates as a wedge issue. (Talev, 12/14)

In related news about health care workers —

Minnesota hospital leaders are warning in a full-page newspaper ad that they are “overwhelmed” amid a COVID-19 surge and are urging the public to take action. “Our emergency departments are overfilled, and we have patients in every bed in our hospitals,” write the leaders of nine hospital systems in the state, including the Mayo Clinic and North Memorial Health. ... “Now, an ominous question looms: will you be able to get care from your local community hospital without delay? Today, that's uncertain,” they write in the ad, which is running in major newspapers across the state. (Sullivan, 12/13)

New Hampshire is at its toughest moment of the coronavirus pandemic right now, though that may be hard to tell walking around supermarkets or visiting restaurants. But inside of hospitals, the spike in COVID-19 infected patients is at crisis levels, with the National Guard and FEMA being called in to assist. NHPR was allowed inside one facility, Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, where reporter Todd Bookman spoke with doctors and nurses about the strain of the moment. (Bookman, 12/13)

Nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are accusing hospital leaders of flouting state rules to cancel certain surgeries and are asking Massachusetts officials to investigate. The Massachusetts Nurses Association, a union that represents 3,500 Brigham nurses, told the Department of Public Health in a letter on Monday that the hospital’s operating rooms remain as busy as ever, despite a state order to curtail scheduled surgeries to make space for other patients who urgently need care. The union wrote that nonessential surgeries such as tummy tucks were continuing unabated as patients who need urgent surgery for broken bones and brain injuries were sometimes waiting for operating rooms. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/13)