LANL to require employees to get COVID vaccine

Los Alamos National Laboratory soon will require its entire workforce to be vaccinated against COVID-19 under a new policy announced Monday.

All regular employees, new hires and on-site contractors and subcontractors will be required to get the full series of shots — and those who fail to do so by the deadline could be fired. The announcement coincides with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision on Monday to grant full authorization of the

Pfizer vaccine for people who are 16 and older.

“To meet our laboratory’s critical mission requirements amid rising COVID-19 case rates in northern New Mexico and beyond, we must protect the entire work force from the spread of this potentially severe disease,” lab Director Thom Mason wrote in a memo. “The best tool we have is vaccines.”

The FDA’s official approval of the Pfizer vaccine coupled with the increasing number of infections has prompted the lab’s mandatory vaccination, Mason wrote.

The lab estimates 85 percent of its employees and contractors are already fully inoculated. Vaccines are available to employees through the lab’s occupational medicine office.

The lab will announce in the near future when all employees must be immunized and have a full vaccination card on file.

Managers will decide whether those who don’t comply should keep their jobs, the lab said in a news release.

Current rules will continue, including mandatory face coverings for all on-site employees and visitors, plus compulsory testing for unvaccinated employees.