Vaccine requirements in businesses spread in US
COVID-19 vaccination requirements are fast becoming facts of life in the U.S., spreading business by business even as politicians and privacy advocates rail against them.
Brown, Notre Dame and Rutgers are among universities warning students and staff they’ll need shots to return to campus this fall. Some sports teams are demanding proof of vaccination or a negative test from fans as arenas reopen. Want to see your favorite band play indoors in California? At bigger venues, the same rules apply. A Houston hospital chain recently ordered its 26,000 employees to get vaccinated.
Yet it’s another matter how people prove they’ve had their shots or are COVID-19-free. Republican politicians and privacy advocates are bristling over so-called vaccination passports, with some states moving to restrict their use.
Given the fraught politics, many companies are “not necessarily wanting to be the first in their sector to take the plunge,” said Carmel Shachar, executive director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. Still, “we’re going to see employers start to require vaccinations if you want to come into the office, if you will have a public-facing job.”
While there may be an uptick in companies asking whether they can require vaccinations, few are ready to make that commitment. The Biden administration is leaving the issue to the private sector, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki saying last week that the U.S. government won’t issue vaccine passports. They are usually conceived of as smartphone apps that show the holder has been immunized against COVID-19, eliminating the need to carry around the paper card that comes with completed vaccinations.
“It would be a simple check for employers to do,” said Susan Kline, an employment lawyer in Indianapolis. “But when you start looking at saying everyone has to show their passport, there starts to be a lot of obstacles.”
The stipulations are following the same haphazard pattern that has characterized so much of the U.S. pandemic response, varying company by company, state by state, and subject to the vagaries of local politics. But it is clear that vaccination rules will become a continuing concern for anyone who works in a U.S. business or patronizes one.
Many businesses have decided on a lighter touch. As they reopen offices, they have strongly encouraged employees to get vaccinated but stopped short of requiring it. That includes Amazon, which offers front-line employees as much as $80 to be immunized, and Walmart, which provides shots at its stores and gives associates two hours of paid time off to get theirs.
A recent survey by the consulting firm Mercer Total Health Management found that 73% of employers don’t plan to make vaccination a requirement.
“People don’t want to go into something that feels like an antagonistic relationship in their workforce,” said Mary Kay O’Neill, senior clinical adviser for Mercer. “Employers are just trying to be supportive and facilitative of getting the vaccine without it being a rule.”