The Wistar Institute Announces COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for All Employees

PHILADELPHIA — (June 2, 2021) — The Wistar Institute, an international biomedical research leader with special expertise in cancer, immunology and infectious disease research and vaccine development, will require all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 1, 2021.

“As an institution that has long been recognized for its contributions to vaccine research, Wistar takes a stand for the importance of mass vaccination in this critical time by setting an example,” said Dario Altieri, M.D., Wistar president and CEO, director of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center and the Robert and Penny Fox Distinguished Professor. “Now that the COVID vaccine is widely available, we need to act as a community, look after each other and protect each other.”

For more than half a century, Wistar has been creating vaccines that saved countless lives in the U.S. and across the world. Wistar scientists developed the rubella vaccine that is given to infants as part of the routine measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) immunization; advanced a post-exposure rabies vaccine that is nearly 100 percent effective in preventing infection and a wildlife rabies vaccine that is used worldwide to protect wild animals and, indirectly, neighboring human populations; and co-created a rotavirus vaccine that has been added to the recommended childhood immunization schedule in the U.S. and many other countries and has saved millions of young lives.

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The Wistar Institute is an international leader in biomedical research with special expertise in cancer research and vaccine development. Founded in 1892 as the first independent nonprofit biomedical research institute in the United States, Wistar has held the prestigious Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute since 1972. The Institute works actively to ensure that research advances move from the laboratory to the clinic as quickly as possible. wistar.org.