COVID 19 – Things to Consider

If your company is planning to implement a mandatory vaccination policy for your employees, there are several things to consider:

1. Before requiring the vaccination, what exceptions will the Company accept?

1. 1. Religious accommodations.  What if someone’s religion forbids or discourages its followers from getting the vaccine.  According to Vanderbilt University Medical Center research, only two religions cite theological reasons for opposing the vaccine:  the Dutch Reformed Church and the Church of Christ, Scientist.  However, on the subject of “Religion”, the EEOC has stated that, “religious practices include “moral or ethical beliefs as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views” and Religion typically concerns “ultimate ideas” about “life, purpose, and death”.  Therefore, the EEOC advises that the employer “should assume that an employee’s request for religious accommodations is based on a sincerely held religious belief. “  Given that definition, if the employee is terminated because of their beliefs, the company would be at risk of a Religious Discrimination lawsuit under Title VII.  Another legal issue may also be in play.  If the company treats an employee so badly because of protected class to which they belong (religion, pregnancy, disability, etc). such that any other reasonable person would quit, the company now faces a potential Constructive Discharge lawsuit.
   2. Women who are pregnant or who want to become pregnant.  There is no clinical scientific data that was collected on pregnant women in the clinical trials because pregnant women are not included in the clinical trials and because vaccine is still less than a year old, the data is still being collected on the safety, side effects or the risks of the vaccine to expectant mothers or those women and their unborn child.  And what about those women who want to become pregnant?  Still too early to make definitive decisions.  This is an incredibly sensitive subject and companies would be well advised to tread carefully.   If the company requires a pregnant woman to get the vaccine as a condition of her continued employment and something happens to the mother or the baby (whether it can be directly connected to the vaccine or not), there is the possibility of a lawsuit.
   3. Medical Reasons.  There are early studies that indicate that the vaccination may cause respiratory complications.  From December 14, 2020 to June 6, 2021, the WHO global pharmacovigilance database identified individual cases of suspected COVID-19 vaccine-related ILD including 135 cases of pneumonitis, 88 cases of acute respiratory distress syndrome, 9 cases of pulmonary alveolar hemorrhage, 9 cases of organizing pneumonia, 6 cases of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, 4 of alveolitis, 2 of eosinophilic pneumonia and 1 case each of acute interstitial pneumonitis, immune-medicated lung disease and pulmonary vasculitis.  What if an employee gets vaccinated and then has respiratory symptoms that put him/her in hospital?  Could they sue the company for damages?  Could they file a Workman’s Compensation claim?
   4. What if I already had the virus and I don’t need the vaccine?    A study conducted by the Maccabi Healthcare Services (a state mandated, not-for-profit health fund) in Israel that covers 26% of Israel’s population studied its population of people who were least 16 years old found that natural immunity provides longer-lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the Delta variant, compared with the protection of the Pfizer-BioNTech two-dose vaccine.

Thank you for reading!