Vaccine mandates are beginning a march across the U.S., constricting the places that people who have shunned the shots can work, shop and play.

A day after the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, institutions central to their regions announced tougher—perhaps bellwether—rules. In New York, a city driven by finance, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. required bankers to prove they’d been vaccinated. In football-crazed Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University will demand vaccines or negative Covid tests to see a game at Tiger Stadium, capacity 102,000.

CVS Health Corp. this week mandated shots for corporate employees and those working with patients, while Chevron Corp. and Hess Corp. added requirements for employees on oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Walt Disney Co. announced a deal with its roughly 40,000 unionized theme-park workers in Florida. Delta Air Lines Inc. said Wednesday that it would levy a monthly $200 charge on workers who refuse to protect themselves.

Delta’s announcement came a week after Deutsche Bank AG told employees that they would only be allowed onto its U.S. trading floors if they were fully vaccinated.

Such stringent requirements had been relatively rare in the U.S., as companies and politicians tried to avoid angering a significant segment of the population hostile to vaccines and other health measures. But President Joe Biden this week encouraged public and private sector employers to crack down. The FDA approval emboldened them to demand that workers and consumers get shots or get out.

In government, 19 states, plus the nation’s capital and Puerto Rico, are already requiring at least some workers to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing. Ohio State University said Tuesday that faculty, staff members and all of its almost 60,000 students must be vaccinated by Oct. 15.

Sandra Crouse Quinn, a professor in the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health, said she expected an “avalanche” of similar moves among public and private institutions. “Companies and universities believe that they have a stronger leg to stand on to mandate vaccines,” she said.

The U.S. is reaching a critical juncture, with the emergence of the highly infectious delta variant and more than 100 million eligible residents still not fully vaccinated. Alarming surges of hospitalizations in Florida and the Deep South have dispelled any lingering perception that current levels of immunity were enough to emerge from the pandemic.

Gerald Harmon, head of the American Medical Association, said society’s fight against Covid could drag on for years: “The way to regain the upper hand in this fight is requiring vaccinations—specifically vaccine mandates,” he said.

Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, said last month that it would require vaccinations for all nonunion employees coming to the office or working at its parks. The company continues to negotiate with its other unions. In a statement, Disney said the vaccine is the “best way to protect each other.”

First « 1 2 » Next