On 28 May 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its Technical Assistance Questions and Answers titled, “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA,.
New vaccination guidance from the EEOC states that employers may offer incentives in some instances, substantial incentives to employees who voluntarily demonstrate that they received a COVID-19 vaccination.
Friday, May 14, 2021
On Thursday, May 13, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) delivered welcome news for vaccinated individuals in the form of revised Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People. The new guidance provides: “[f]ully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.” In general, an individual is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose in the case of a two-dose series vaccine or two weeks after a the first dose in a single-dose vaccine.
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In the wake of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s first grant of Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a COVID-19 vaccine, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its pandemic guidance to address the legal issues surrounding the intersection of the COVID-19 vaccine and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws. The guidance in the form of Technical Assistance Questions and Answers called
What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO
Laws (“New Guidance”)[1] is the EEOC’s first substantive position statement on the requirements of EEO laws relative to vaccines since the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic and paves the way for COVID-19 vaccines in the workplace. During the H1N1 pandemic, EEOC advised employers, “Generally, ADA-covered employers should consider simply encouraging employees to get the influenza vaccine rather than requiring them to take it
[co-author: José L. Maymí-González]
Multiple states and jurisdictions are reporting a deadly winter spike of COVID-19 infections. An excess of 220,000 cases of COVID-19 were reported in early December, a dramatic increase from the 44,783 reported in October. Nevertheless, a glint of hope flashes within the gloom of the COVID-19 pandemic: Operation Warp Speed, a partnership program between the public and private sectors to develop, produce, and mass distribute a COVID vaccine. Pfizer’s vaccine has a reported effectiveness rate of 82% after the first dose and a 95% rate after the second dose. This, and various other vaccines with similar effectivity rates, are currently in the race for government authorization for mass vaccinations, with Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s vaccines having received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This “emergency use” authorization stems from the FDA’s ability to greenlight unapproved medic