Could the government or employers require the COVID vaccine? Georgia experts say yes

More than 100 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and several states, including Georgia, are relaxing restrictions issued during the height of the pandemic to reduce virus transmission.

About a quarter of Georgians have received the vaccine, but demand seems to be diminishing and the state is preparing to close its eight mass vaccination sites. While Gov. Brian Kemp has been vocal in his opposition to any vaccine requirements for state employees, Georgia health experts say private companies could require employees to show proof of vaccination before returning to the workplace.

The discussion of “vaccine passports” is complicated, experts say: the term itself is poorly defined and covers a variety of different potential mandates from countries, states and private employers and organizations.

Harry Heiman, a professor in the department of health policy and behavioral sciences at Georgia State, said “vaccine passport” refers to the underlying idea of restricting access to certain activities based on whether someone has been vaccinated.

“It is an additional public health tool that I think is necessary to return to more normal functioning,” Heiman said. “This issue is being politicized in ways that really can harm the public and can be a barrier to doing what we need to do to ensure a safe and efficient return.”

Can I be required to get the vaccine?

Over the next few months, more private companies, government organizations and universities could require some sort of vaccination proof. But are they legally allowed to do so?

Heiman said a precedent for the federal government requiring proof of vaccination stems from “Jacobson v. Massachusetts,” a 1905 Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to require residents to be vaccinated against smallpox or pay a fine.

“A community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members,” Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote in the decision.

Precedent also exists for private companies requiring employees to be vaccinated.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination, businesses can require employees to demonstrate proof of vaccination. Employers can even exclude employees from the workplace if they cannot make an accommodation for folks who can’t get the vaccine due to a disability or religious belief.

Heiman likened this to a ban on smoking in public places.

“If you choose that you don’t want to get a vaccine, that’s your right. But it might limit your ability to participate in certain public spaces,” he said. “Your unvaccinated status not only puts you at increased risk for contracting the disease, but puts you at risk for potentially spreading it to other people.”

One factor that might also give some employers pause when it comes to requiring the vaccine is that all three vaccines available in the U.S. have not yet received official approval from the FDA, which could happen over the next few months; they’re currently being offered under an emergency use authorization. Some private companies might wait for FDA approval before requiring employees to be vaccinated. This also could prove true for universities as well.

“We’ll see an increasing number of universities, other institutions and companies coming out with those kinds of vaccine mandate once the FDA approval moves to more formal licensure,” Heiman said. “I think it’s striking that even without that, there are dozens of universities that have already come out saying that vaccines will be mandated.”

Return to normalcy

Andy Chen, a professor in the University of Georgia’s health policy and management department, said that one of the vaccine’s — and vaccine passports’— biggest benefits will be the potential economic impact. Because the service and tourism industries were hit hard by the pandemic-induced economic recession, the more people are vaccinated, the more comfortable Americans will be with traveling and attending events.

“The key benefit of a vaccine passport is there could be an increase in tourism,” Chen said. “There could be a revitalization of these sectors of the economy.”

Chen also said that people still value being able to do business face-to-face but it should be in a safe way to reduce the spread of the virus. He added that the vaccine passport and overall vaccination of the community is going to help get back to some sense of normalcy.

States fight back against passport

On Wednesday, the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill to ban COVID-19 passports and other states around the country are considering similar measures.

This comes after Gov. Rob DeSantis issued an executive order on April 2 banning COVID-19 passports out of fear of privacy concerns.

In Georgia, governor Kemp said that he would not support any kind of state-mandated vaccine passport but has not issued an executive order banning the use of them.

The Biden administration has said it won’t build a national vaccination mobile phone application, but private companies are working to build vaccine passport apps.

Rutgers University in New Jersey has already said that it will require students to provide proof of vaccination before returning to classes in the fall.

Leaders at The World Health Organization said they do not support mandatory proof of vaccination for international travel because of concerns over equity.

“There are all those other questions, apart from the question of discrimination against the people who are not able to have the vaccine for one reason or another,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in a U.N news briefing.

Harris added that “We would not like to see the vaccination passport as a requirement for entry or exit because we are not certain at this stage that the vaccine prevents transmission.”