A major federal agency said this week that employers can legally require their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine and prevent them from entering their workplace if they refuse.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EOC) said Wednesday that requiring a test would not violate the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. The law prohibits employers from requiring medical examinations, such as blood tests that seek information about physical or physical health. mental state of an employee, but the EOC said a COVID-19 vaccine does not fall under that category.
“If an employer administers a vaccine to an employee to protect against contracting COVID-19, the employer does not seek information about a person’s limitations or current health status and is therefore not a medical examination,” the committee said.
“There are many reasons that may explain why an employee is not vaccinated, which may or may not be related to a disability,” he added.
Public health experts have said they predict employers will play a key role in bringing the nation to a critical degree of widespread immunity as vaccines become more widely available. Two vaccines, one from Pfizer / BioNTech and one from Moderna, have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to give the green light to the Moderna vaccine being administered in the next days.
Still, even with permission from the EOC, employers should be careful of any information that can be gleaned from pre-screening questions, which the government says should be “ work-related and consistent with business need. ”
A requirement for workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine could play a significant role in combating what experts say is an alarmingly high level of skepticism about the shot.
While vaccines are considered one of the most critical tools to finally reduce the spread of the disease, a Gallup survey last month found that only 58 percent of Americans said they would receive a vaccine.
To boost public confidence at once, Vice President Pence, second lady Karen Pence
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While the roll-out of vaccines provides light at the end of the tunnel, the country is still moving towards what is expected to be the deadliest phase of the virus before they are widely available in the spring and summer. Public health experts expected a spike in cases after Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the country sometimes reports more than 3,000 deaths in a single day.