From Yahoo:
“Who Can Make You Get a COVID
Vaccine?”
Millions of Americans have chosen
not to get a coronavirus vaccine. But with the shots readily available and
virus cases ticking back up in parts of the country, a growing number of
employers, universities and businesses are now issuing some form of a vaccine
requirement. Under many of these orders, those who remain unvaccinated,
including people who can’t get a vaccine because of a disability or conflicting
religious beliefs, will instead have to follow strict guidelines like regular
COVID testing, masking and social distancing. “I think probably what these
companies are thinking — for those individuals — requiring them to be masked,
or constantly tested, is a reasonable accommodation,” Joel Friedman, a law
professor at Tulane University, said. “And that’s probably correct.” Another
component of the shifting landscape on vaccines is their expected full approval
by the Food and Drug Administration. The vaccines are currently administered
under an emergency use authorization, so full approval could alleviate concerns
over their safety — and encourage even more organizations to make them a
requirement.
Here’s a look at who could ask
you to get the vaccine:
Can your employer require you
to get the vaccine? The short answer is yes, though a vast majority have
not. Any company is within its legal rights to require employees get
vaccinated, barring any conflicting disability or religious belief, according
to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Walmart, the
nation’s largest private employer, is requiring that a good chunk of its
workers — an estimated 1.6 million, including those at its headquarters —
receive a vaccine. The Walt Disney Co., Google, Facebook, Tyson Foods
and Uber are some of the other large companies requiring at least some of their
employees to be vaccinated. State governments and the Biden administration
have also issued vaccine mandates in their capacity as employers, but not in a
way that affects the general public. As many as 7 million federal workers are
now required to show proof of vaccination, under new guidelines announced by
President Joe Biden in late July. If they do not, they’ll have to follow strict
rules on mandatory masking, weekly testing and social distancing. The military
said it would follow suit with its employees. States like North Carolina,
New York and California are also requiring their state employees do the
same. And mandatory vaccination orders are also popping up for workers in state
hospital systems across the country. This includes most hospitals in Massachusetts,
some in South Carolina and others in North Carolina. And these requirements
aren’t a HIPAA violation, either — while the act protects a patient’s
confidential health information, including what one’s health care provider can
share with others, it doesn’t cover what employers can ask for.
What about your college or
university? Yes. And they may have already done so if you attend one of the
more than 500 colleges and universities — including the university system in
states like California, Illinois, Colorado and New York — that are making the
vaccine an enrollment requirement if students want to take classes in-person
this coming semester. While some campuses are asking students to provide
a proof of vaccination, others are incentivizing students with exemptions from
mask mandates. But that doesn’t mean everyone is happy. A federal judge
upheld Indiana University’s vaccine requirement last month after a group of
students filed a lawsuit. The mandate is also a challenge for international
students who may not have access to one of the eight WHO-approved vaccines.
What about children in K-12
schools? That can depend on whether the child is in a public or private
school. While children ages 12 to 17 are now eligible for the vaccine, and it’s
likely that younger children will become eligible this fall, it’s not a
requirement for attending a public K-12 school anywhere in the country. Private
schools, along with day care centers and camps, can decide whether to require
their students to get a vaccine or not. Most children already receive
routine vaccinations for other diseases, like tetanus, polio and chickenpox, to
fulfill school enrollment requirements. So a state-level requirement for a
COVID vaccine in the future is a possibility.
Could your local or state
government require you to get the vaccine? What about the federal government? Local
and state governments can enforce a vaccination because of a legal precedent
set by the 1905 Supreme Court ruling in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which let
states require their residents get smallpox vaccinations. New York City
will this month begin requiring proof of vaccination for dining inside
restaurants, entering fitness centers and taking part in other indoor
activities. At the same time, some states, like Florida, are using their
authority to enforce the opposite, and have banned agencies and businesses from
requiring proof of vaccination. And as for the federal government,
that’s a no. The director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, confirmed in July
that there would be no nationwide mandate.
What if you want to travel
internationally? It depends. While certain countries remain closed to Americans,
those that welcome travelers require either proof of vaccination, or a recent
negative COVID test. So long as you can provide the latter, a vaccination
usually isn’t required.
What about other businesses
where you’re just a customer? It depends on where you live. A
handful of restaurants in major cities like Philadelphia and Los Angeles
now require customers show proof of a vaccination. A couple of restaurants and
bars in Kansas City are also doing the same. Only some of these places
will let customers present a recent negative COVID test instead. Similar
policies are showing up in gyms. Equinox and SoulCycle will require their
customers and staff in New York City provide proof of vaccination next month
before extending the same requirements to other locations.
How do the religious
exemptions work? While employers have a legal responsibility to reasonably
accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs, and universities can allow
religious, and even philosophical, exemptions for the vaccines, restaurants and
other businesses don’t have that same duty toward customers, according to
Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. What
exactly constitutes a religious belief is open to interpretation, she said,
from the teachings of the major organized religions to less traditional
religious beliefs. One religious argument people have made against
vaccines, according to Sepper, is that they undercut their faith in God’s
ability to protect their bodies from harm. Others are opposed to vaccines that
were developed or tested using cells derived from the fetal tissue of elective
abortions that took place decades ago. But employers are also protected
from being burdened — they only have to provide a realistic alternative to the
employee, usually in the form of frequent testing, mask mandates or social
distancing. “The obligation to the employer is to be reasonable,” Sepper
said. “Not to roll over backward, and let an employee do whatever they want.”
And the number of people who could successfully petition for a religious
exemption from a vaccine mandate is probably small. “If we saw religious
exemptions in any large number, I would doubt their sincerity,” Sepper said.
“Because there’s no major religion that opposes vaccination.”
Will more organizations
require a vaccine in the future? It's likely. Friedman, who anticipates
that more businesses will require vaccinations in the future, maintains that
the legal precedent for mandating vaccines is already there, it’s just up to
these entities to decide to act on it. “It’s not a legal decision,” he
said. “It’s a political and economic judgment that these companies are making.”
^ I find it funny (in an odd way)
when I hear people say that no one can force them to get a Covid Vaccine. Most
places have done just that for nearly a century for other Vaccines and have
simply added the Covid Vaccine to that list. ^
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