64% of small-business owners support a federal vaccine mandate https://fortune.com/2021/10/28/small-business-owners-support-federal-vaccine-mandate/
The U.S. Supreme Court flips anti-vaxxers the bird... Supreme Court declines to block Maine health care employee vaccine mandate https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/29/politics/maine-vaccine-mandate-supreme-court/index.html The Supreme Court on Friday denied a request to block a Maine rule that requires certain health care employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. A group of unvaccinated workers argued that the vaccine mandate violated their religious liberty rights. The court's right wing -- Justice Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito -- dissented and would have halted the mandate while the appeals process plays out. The court's move is the latest instance in which the justices have turned away a request to halt a vaccine mandate and it comes as states are grappling with the delta variant. Writing for his two conservative colleagues, Gorsuch pointed to the fact that "unlike comparable rules in most states," Maine's rule "contains no exemption for those whose sincerely held religious beliefs preclude them from accepting the vaccination" but it does have a medical exemption. Gorsuch said that Maine's decision to deny a religious exemption "borders on the irrational" and that the state had failed to present any evidence that granting the religious exemption "would threaten its stated public health interests any more than its medical exemption already does." Health care workers behind the suit, "who have served on the front line of a pandemic for the last 18 months, are now being fired and their practices shuttered" all for "adhering to their constitutionally protected religious beliefs." He added: "Their plight is worthy of our attention." Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh voted with the majority to allow the mandate. In a brief statement, Barrett said that she decided against voting to grant such "extraordinary relief" in part because the case arose on the court's emergency docket and the justices did not have the benefit of a full briefing and oral arguments. Religious liberty issues Over the last few months, the justices had declined invitations to strike down vaccine mandates at Indiana University and New York City schools, but the Maine dispute targeted religious liberty concerns. The Maine vaccine mandate -- that requires designated health care facilities, dental health providers and emergency services organizations to require that their employees to get the vaccine -- went into force on Friday. The workers bringing the suit argued that it violates the Constitution and Title VII, federal civil rights law that bars employment discrimination based on religion. While Maine offers a limited exemption for some medical situations, it does not consider requests for religious objections. "Maine has plainly singled out religious employees who decline vaccination for religious reasons for especially harsh treatment," Mathew Staver, a lawyer for Liberty Counsel, representing the workers, wrote in court papers. At the same time, Staver said the state has been "favoring and accommodating employees declining vaccination for secular, medical reasons." Staver said the workers object to the vaccines because of the way that they were either "developed, researched, tested, produced or otherwise developmentally associated with fetal cell lines that originated in elective abortions." It is an argument that has been made before. The Catholic Church and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church's highest doctrinal authority, have wrestled with the moral permissibility of receiving Covid-19 vaccines because of their distant relation to fetal cell lines developed from abortions in the 1970s and 1980s. The AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were developed using aborted cell lines, though the final product does not contain fetal cells. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were not manufactured from fetal cell lines and the final product does not contain fetal cells, although their testing used these cell lines. The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said in a note approved by Pope Francis that receiving the shot was morally permitted. "It is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process," the note said. But the health care workers, including one health care provider who operates his own private practice in the state, still objected. The provider doesn't want to receive the vaccine and he wants to honor the beliefs of his employees who also object. When the mandate goes into force, he says he will face the revocation of his license and the shuttering of his practice. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey urged the justices to let the mandate stand, saying that the pandemic has "gripped" the state with 100,937 total confirmed cases and 1,122 deaths as of October 2021. He said the mandate was necessary to "prevent the spread of Covid" in high-risk places and that it did not target religious practice. A medical exemption is necessary, he said, "because there are certain circumstances when vaccination may cause adverse health consequences, thereby actually harming that individual."
Since over 70% of adult workers are vaccinated. This leaves 5% of of the remaining 30% -- which is 1.5%. A number which is under the normal workforce attrition rate per year. Vaccine mandates are turning out to be a great way for people who make poor decisions to self-identify themselves and remove themselves from your corporate environment -- thereby improving your business & keeping your other workers safe. At least 5% of unvaccinated adult Americans have QUIT their jobs over workplace vaccine mandates, poll finds https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-adults-left-job-vaccination-requirement.html
Do people really think employers will not check your vax card against the databases? This is a great way to get fired and also face federal charges. Employers are firing more people over fake vaccine cards https://finance.yahoo.com/news/empl...people-over-fake-vaccine-cards-114647067.html Just like the front offices at major sports teams, businesses around the country are having to make tough choices about employees either refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, or in some instances, even faking their vaccination status. But unlike National Hockey League player Evander Kane, who received a 21-game suspension last week for reportedly submitting a fake vaccine card to his team, employees caught doing the same in many offices in the U.S. could not only be terminated from their jobs, but potentially face prison time if employers choose to report offenses to authorities. According to Lindsay Ryan, a lawyer at Pulsinelli specializing in COVID-19 employment issues, businesses are increasingly having to address employees caught forging vaccine cards and many bosses don't know how to legally hold them accountable. "We are starting to hear more and more about companies who have questions about what to do if they suspect that a vaccine card is fake. And it's not always clear," she said on Yahoo Finance Live. "Most employers are taking a pretty hard stance — if they find out that someone has presented a fake vaccine card, there usually is a company policy in place that will entitle them to discipline that employee. And usually that disciplinary action will just be termination." Of course, there is a bit of staggered approach being taken by companies when it comes to heeding the call from President Biden to mandate vaccines. For companies like American Airlines, which was among the first major corporations to mandate vaccines among employees, the policy is pretty unambiguous: get vaccinated, or face termination. For others, waiting to see how legal challenges play out is the strategy of choice. There are currently 10 states, all led by GOP-governors, suing the federal government over Biden's executive order that mandates companies with more than 100 employees require vaccinations. The order, which is supported by prior Supreme Court rulings, also applies to federal workers, and employees at hospitals and nursing homes that depend on Medicare or Medicaid payments. Ryan tells Yahoo Finance some businesses are still working through the appropriate level of vetting to ensure employee vaccination statuses. Interestingly, she notes that the law is pretty clear when it comes to forging federal documents like vaccine cards, but a minority of company policies could possibly leave enough wiggle room to make terminating employees caught in the act more difficult. "Employers should be aware and should make sure that their employees are aware that presenting a fake vaccine card to their employer could result in legal liability and probably violations that range from a fine of up to $5,000 or even imprisonment," she said. "Most employers do have some type of company policy in their employee handbook that prohibits dishonest acts ... and so for most employers, they would be in the right to terminate or to discipline an at-will employee for presenting a false vaccine card in connection with their vaccine policy." In a poll of Yahoo Finance viewers, the majority of more than 1,000 respondents agreed that employees should be fired if they are caught forging vaccine cards. Human resources departments might find themselves in a tricky position as they fall deeper into the role of a vaccine enforcer. As Ryan says, not only are there questions around mandates to address but also special exemptions to account for. "You also have the added component that individuals are entitled to request reasonable accommodations and perhaps an exemption from the vaccine requirement for religious reasons or disability-related reasons," she said. "And so that also requires personnel that can field those requests, engage in the interactive process with employees, and respond to those requests. So it's a big ask of HR departments for companies. And they are having to rethink how their company is equipped to handle those issues." Two Pennsylvania police officers were fired for submitting fake COVID-19 vaccination cards to their department https://www.insider.com/two-pennsylvania-police-officers-fired-fake-covid-19-vaccine-cards-2021-10
Nurses and Doctors are now being caught stealing authentic vaccination information and then reselling it for a few hundred dollars per stolen proof of vaccination. This should go further than just firing them...it should be criminal especially when it involves identity theft of someone's vaccination credentials and then the user of the fake vaccination info then infects someone at their place of employment or infects someone they're serving in the public. wrbtrader
As outlined many times the regulation is being issued via OSHA following the standard rule making process. I have outlined the entire process and schedule multiple times. Sometimes articles get this wrong. In this case because the State AG's are making endless noise that they are suing over "Biden's Executive Order" -- which strictly speaking is not true, but aligns with the GOP talking points.
Translation = there is no EO. Federal employees, contractors there’s the fight. Any public company at this point in time would be stupid to attempt such.
Yet as noted -- many articles get this wrong. In this case because the GOP State AG's are making endless noise that they are suing over "Biden's Executive Order" -- which strictly speaking is not true, but aligns with the GOP talking points.
Their concern is over those industries that are regulated by the feds, but not federal employees, health care, airlines, etc.