The Emergency Use Authorization goes back to the Project Bioshield Act of 2004, passed largely in response to the 2001 anthrax attacks. Congress recognized that the FDA might need to approve drugs quickly in the event of a biological or nuclear terror event. The statute does say conditions can be placed on a drug granted an EUA, including informing the recipient of the drug’s status and advising them that the choice is theirs. It’s this language that has taken the internet by storm.
But that doesn’t mean employers can’t make workers get vaccinated, Bagley said.
“It’s a condition on future employment,” he said. “And institutions can do all sorts of things as a condition of employment.”
‘It’s Just Not True’
An April survey by Arizona State University and the Rockefeller Foundation found that almost 90% of employers who responded plan to encourage or require their employees to get vaccinated and that 60% intend to require proof of vaccination.
In Ohio, Montgomery County prosecuting attorney Mat Heck is requiring all his employees to get the vaccine and thinks he’s within his rights.
“I’ve heard the whole spectrum,” Heck said. “I’ve heard you just can’t do it. I’ve heard the emergency use argument. I’ve heard you can’t make your employees get a shot for any reason. But it’s just not true.”
Conversations about employer-mandated vaccines on Facebook and Twitter rose in late March and early April, according to an analysis by the German Marshall Fund, which found that the highest engagement has been with posts about getting legal assistance for refusing to take the shot.
Lawsuits have been filed. One case includes a former worker at a New Mexico county jail, Isaac Legaretta, who claims he was improperly demoted and faced retaliation after refusing to get the shot. Legaretta contends that the county manager’s mandatory vaccination directive violates the federal Emergency Use Authorization statute, which requires that people be given the option to refuse a drug under that status. Another suit, in California, relies on the same statute.
‘Other Employers Out There’
“You’ve got somebody whose government employer says you’ve got to take this vaccine or you’re fired,” said Legaretta’s attorney, Jonathan Diener. “It doesn’t have FDA approval, it’s experimental at this stage, but if you don’t take this, you’re fired? In my view, that’s not right.”
At Houston Methodist, Chief Executive Officer Marc Boom said the hospital’s policy is in the best interests of employees and patients. And while he wouldn’t comment on Jennifer Bridges specifically, Dr. Boom said she’s in the minority.
“The overwhelming communication I get from my employees has been really positive,” Boom said, and the rest are putting themselves ahead of patients. If they choose not to get vaccinated, he said, “we are very sorry to lose them, but there are other employers out there.”
Bridges has hired a lawyer, just as her Facebook friends suggested.
This article wax provided by Bloomberg News.