Q:  Now that it looks like at least three vaccines will be approved soon, will employers be able to require it as a condition of employment?

A: The short answer is yes.

Employers (especially in healthcare) can already require employees to get vaccinated for certain contagious diseases such as the flu, TB and Hepatitis C.

This is not controversial.  I’m fairly certain those same employers will also be reasonably able to require COVID vaccinations. The distribution plan for the new vaccine is to first offer it to healthcare workers and long-term-living facility residents and then to first responders.

SAFETY

However, there is one thing which may prevent employers from requiring the vaccine:  right now the vaccine only has “emergency use authorization” and still doesn’t have full FDA approval.  That means that if an employer requires they open themselves up to a challenge by an employee. Because this hasn’t happened before who knows if they’ll have legal standing. In the meantime however, there are many healthcare workers more than willing to take the vaccine that is now available -in fact many participated in the different phases of the vaccine trials. The bigger issue might be having enough vaccines quantities for those who want it.

By the time the vaccine is widely available for the average worker -sometime in late spring/summer- much more will be known about its efficacy and side effects.  The vaccines may even have FDA approval. Employers will have until then to figure out what to do if an employee refuses to take it.

I think that instead requiring the vaccine for non-healthcare workers, it might be better for employers to offer incentives -for example the way they offer incentives to join a gym.

Lastly -and in a bit of a tangent- the following is a statistic about first responders (specifically cops) that’s seldom discussed but I think it deserves more attention: according to WebMD, COVID was the biggest cause of police deaths this year.  According to the Officer Down Memorial Page odmp.org , 152 officers have died from COVID contracted while on duty, compared to only 42 who died due to  gunfire and 45 who died due to auto accidents.  Think about that.  3.5 times more cops died in 2020 so far from COVID than from guns.  In other words, COVID is more of an occupational hazard than guns. Cops need that vaccine 3.5 times more than they need that bullet proof vest.

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