Can bosses ask employees about vaccination status?
Each week, Houston Chronicle reporters field questions about COVID-19, safety precautions and other pandemic-related queries. In this week’s COVID Help Desk, we tackle questions about hand sanitizer, vaccines in the workplace and provide an update on Texas’ vaccination efforts.
What is my employer allowed to ask about my vaccination status?
Pretty much anything, provided they treat your response as they would any other confidential medical information, said Susan Bickley, a labor and employment attorney at Houston’s Blank Rome.
At least one bill proposed in the Texas Legislature would bar the “segregation or separate treatment in any matter” of a person based on vaccination status.
And some groups, including employees at Houston Methodist, have challenged employers’ rights to require vaccines on the grounds that vaccines have been approved only for emergency use by federal regulators.
But generally speaking, Bickley said, employers in Texas and nationally have the right to ask about or require vaccines. Employees are also allowed to ask one another about vaccines, she said.
Still, she advised businesses to be sensitive to their employees’ feelings and potential health concerns.
“If you’re going to ask, it would be a good idea to take into account the feelings of your workforce,” she said.
She noted many national companies have opted not to require vaccines because doing so would require navigating different state laws or upsetting employees.
Do I still need to use hand sanitizer? What about spraying down my groceries?
Generally speaking, it’s probably fine to stop wor
rying about contamination via surfaces, said Dr. Charles Lerner, an internal medicine specialist and member of the Texas Medical Association’s COVID-19 task force.
Early in the pandemic — when much was still unknown about how the virus is transmitted — public health experts advised hand sanitizer and disinfectant.
A year later, Lerner says it is increasingly clear that the risk of exposure through physical surfaces is “trivial” compared with activities in which people can be exposed to airborne particles, such as flying or eating at an indoor restaurant.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends handwashing after preparing food, being in a public space or blowing your nose.
There are good reasons to keep up with handwashing: This year has seen some of the lowest rates of influenza in Houston, with the number of cases at Memorial Hermann dropping from 983 last year to just 3 in 2020.
Memorial Hermann physicians have credited that drop to widespread mask-wearing and hand sanitizing, among other precautions.
What do we know about a potential vaccine booster? When would they likely be needed?
It’s still unclear if — or when — a potential booster shot would be needed.
And it will likely be a few more months until major vaccine developers have enough data from the first batch of inoculations to determine the length of protection they provide.
Pfizer announced earlier this week that it has begun testing a booster shot on adults. And Moderna re
ports its booster shot is effective against the morecontagious and deadly B.1.351 and P.1. variants.
The company is also testing a third dose similar to its original two-dose inoculation, as well as a booster that mixes its original dose with that from its booster shot.
Johnson & Johnson, which provides a one-shot vaccine, is also researching the question.
Dr. David Lakey, chief medical officer of the University of Texas System, said more will need to be known about the current vaccines before it can be determined whether vaccine boosters will be needed.
He said he’s been encouraged by the length of protection that the three major vaccines have shown to provide so far. But Lakey is not ruling out the need for boosters, particularly until more is known about the various mutations of the coronavirus.
“The science is showing that immunity is lasting in individuals,” Lakey said. “But for right now it’s too early to tell” whether boosters will be necessary.
Where do Texas’ vaccination efforts stand?
As of last week, roughly
52 percent of all Texans have received at least one dose of the vaccine and about 42 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Texas has routinely ranked among the worst of all states for vaccinations per capita, and there are significant disparities in vaccination rates between different parts of the state.
In Harris County, for example, about 53 percent of residents eligible for the vaccine — those ages 12 and older — have received at least one dose and 42 percent have been fully inoculated.
Local officials expect those numbers to continue trending upward now that children are eligible for vaccines.
But vaccination rates still lag in many parts of Texas, namely in more rural counties. For example: Only about 36 percent of eligible Montgomery County residents have been fully inoculated, according to DSHS.
There’s still much debate among health experts about the threshold at which we will reach herd immunity, though the CDC estimates it to be around 70 percent.