Legally Qualified: Can Employers Require Vaccines?
Can Employers Require COVID-19 Vaccinations?
With the recent imposition of COVID-19 vaccine mandates (Mandates), some employees claim that the vaccine conflicts with their religion. So employers are being forced to ask themselves a similar question – whether their...more
With the surge of COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, many employers are considering whether to require employees to be vaccinated, how to encourage employee vaccinations, and the implications of vaccine policies for...more
Now that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued its formal approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, many employers are beginning to implement vaccine requirements for employees. This article...more
As the Delta variant of COVID-19 rapidly spreads across the country and offices continue to reopen with the close of summer, questions around mandatory vaccination policies are on the rise. On the heels of federal and local...more
As we enter our seventeenth month of the COVID-19 pandemic, fears that the pandemic is once again getting out of control continue to rise. With COVID-19 cases increasing across the country, due in part to the contagiousness...more
COVID-19 is once again at the forefront for employers as the Delta variant rapidly surges throughout the country, while vaccination rates lag and new scientific findings explain how the virus spreads. Faced with concerns that...more
With the Delta variant on an upswing and COVID-19 vaccines widely available, more and more employers are considering implementing mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies in the workplace. This is especially true for employers...more
Growing numbers of private businesses and public entities have announced policies requiring employees and others to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment or as a condition of access to facilities or...more
With the FDA’s emergency use authorization (EUA) and now widespread availability of multiple COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, an increasing number of public and private entities are considering requiring or have...more
Eliminating any remaining doubt as to whether the Emergency Use Authorization (or EUA) status of approved COVID-19 vaccines bars private employers from implementing mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies, on July 6, 2021,...more
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines hold promise to control the pandemic and help restore normal social and economic life, even as variant threats loom. ...more
Since the first COVID-19 vaccines were granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration in December, many businesses have wrestled with whether to impose vaccine mandates for their employees. ...more
According to a legal opinion posted online on July 26, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice officially took the position that the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA)—which authorizes an “emergency use authorization” (EUA) for...more
Don't rely on it too much -- yet. We recently got our first federal court decision addressing whether an employer had the right to require employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19. The court's answer was yes... ...more
As institutions of higher education (“IHEs”) approach their summer and fall terms, the question on every administrator’s mind is: Can our institution legally implement a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy for students and/or...more
In the first ruling of its kind nationwide, a federal court in Texas has upheld a hospital’s policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of continued employment... ...more
On June 4, 2021, a federal judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order that would have blocked Houston Methodist Hospital (the “Hospital”) from requiring its employees to receive one of the currently-available...more
In a pair of notable new lawsuits, employees of both public and private employers have filed legal challenges to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies. First, on April 16, 2021, in the Middle District of North Carolina, a...more
Without a decisive legal pronouncement by the federal government permitting employers to institute a vaccine mandate, employers should continue exercising caution to avoid potential legal pitfalls when devising a vaccine...more
UPDATE: On June 12, 2021, the hospital’s motion to dismiss this lawsuit in its entirety was granted. The Court found that the hospital’s policy of mandating the COVID-19 vaccine aligned with its business of saving lives...more
The EEOC issued updated guidance stating that federal equal employment opportunity laws do not prevent an employer from requiring all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19, subject to some...more
On May 28, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued updated guidance regarding workplace COVID-19 vaccination policies and employee accommodations (the “Updated Guidance”). Among other issues, the...more
June 4, 2021 By: Rebecca K. Kimura and Theresa E. Rusnak On May 28, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued revised guidance regarding COVID-19. The updated guidance, consisting of 21 FAQs, includes...more
On May 28, 2021, 117 unvaccinated nonmanagerial employees from Houston Methodist Hospital filed a lawsuit to challenge the hospital’s vaccine mandate in Jennifer Bridges et al. v The Methodist Hospital. This appears to be the...more
In its latest update to informal guidance on COVID-19 vaccination issues, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) addressed vaccination mandates, incentives, and confidentiality, among other topics...more