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Do You Have a COVID-19 Worker Vaccination Plan in Place?

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Do You Have a COVID-19 Worker Vaccination Plan in Place?

Do You Have a COVID-19 Worker Vaccination Plan in Place?

Key Points:

  • In today’s Recommendations for Industry, we discuss the need for a vaccination plan as office workers return to the workplace, and what some businesses are doing. Read more below.
  • Global COVID deaths in 2021 have topped all of last year's. COVID-19 deaths in 2021 worldwide have surpassed the total number of COVID-19 deaths in all of 2020, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data yesterday. As of Jun 10, 1,884,146 people have died of COVID-19 in 2021, compared with the 1,880,510 in 2020.
    • South America was the hardest hit continent and concerns rise in Africa about case surge and vaccine supply.
    • As wealthy nations are seeing daily new cases and deaths trend downwards, the pandemic is intensifying in Asia and Latin America where new, highly transmissible variants are spreading. This is largely driven by the difference in vaccination rates across the regions. (WSJ)
  • G-7 leaders are planning to donate one billion COVID-19 vaccines to poorer nations, according to CNBC today.
  • A large study finds the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine to be about 90% effective.
  • A recent FDA review concluded that the J&J vaccine is safe and effective when stored at standard refrigeration temperatures for at least 4.5 months. The extended shelf life comes after state officials warned that a large number of J&J shots would go to waste as vaccination rates decline. While the J&J shot was expected to be critical in expanding vaccine access in low income and rural areas, only 11 million Americans have gotten the J&J vaccine, compared to the over 129 million who received Pfizer or Moderna shots. 
  • A CDC-led surveillance study of US children during the first wave of the pandemic found that multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) was a rare complication associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, incidence was significantly higher in non-White racial and ethnic groups.
  • Most severe COVID patient autopsies showed muscle inflammation. autopsies of 43 hospitalized COVID patients and 11 patients hospitalized for other health issues in Germany, those with COVID-19 were associated with more skeletal muscle inflammation, according to a study in JAMA Neurology.
  • According to a BBC report, a headache, sore throat and runny nose are now the most commonly reported symptoms linked to Covid infection in the UK, researchers say. Prof Tim Spector, who runs the Zoe Covid Symptom study, says catching the Delta variant can feel “more like a bad cold” for younger people. “This variant seems to be working slightly differently,” he says. Chills, loss of appetite, headache and muscle aches were together most strongly linked with being infected, alongside classic symptoms.
  • A study from the U.K. found that between December 2020 and May 2021, individuals who got two doses of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine were 79 percent and 80 percent less likely to get COVID, respectively. Read the study.
  • The World Health Organization has given emergency authorization to two of China’s vaccines — one from the state-owned company Sinopharm, and the other from Sinovac, a private company based in Beijing. But the Chinese vaccines have come under scrutiny after cases rose in places like Bahrain, Mongolia and Seychelles where large percentages of the population had been inoculated with the Sinopharm vaccine.
  • The FDA tells Johnson & Johnson that about 60 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine produced at the Emergent BioSolutions Baltimore factory cannot be used because of possible contamination. FDA plans to allow about 10 million doses to be distributed in the US or sent to other countries, with a warning that regulators cannot guarantee that the company followed good manufacturing practices.
  • As infections rise, England braces for delay in reopening’s. Restrictions on social contact are expected to remain in place for a few more weeks because of rising infections due to the delta COVID-19 variant. With the variant estimated to be 60% more contagious, British scientists have urged the prime minister to err on the side of caution and postpone plans to lift most coronavirus restrictions in England on June 21. There is growing speculation that the rules will stay in effect at least until July 19.
  • Companies Desperate to Reopen Ask: What’s Your Vaccination Status? While many companies are planning to require office workers to return soon, they also are puzzling over what to do about vaccines – whether to mandate, encourage, cajole or bribe them?
    • Most companies are hoping to avoid requiring vaccines. EEOC says they can, but chief executives fear vaccine mandates would lead to lawsuits, invite political upheaval and be hard to enforce. But they are also worried about safety and the potential for an outbreak to force a company to retrench on masking and social distancing policies, making it even harder to get back to normal.
    • Nearly a third of companies have yet to develop any vaccine policy, according to a survey of 770 companies conducted by Tinypulse.

Public Health & Food Safety:

  • Food banks welcome $1 billion investment by USDA. USDA refocused its efforts to tackle hunger, shutting down the Farmers to Families Food Box program and instead focusing on existing distribution channels for charitable food and investing $1 billion to support food banks. The aid includes $500 million to purchase nutritious, domestically produced food for state food bank networks through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. Another $400 million will go toward purchases aimed at strengthening local and regional food systems, and the final $100 million is earmarked for operational costs.
  • Report shows reasons for concern about animal operations near produce – In a new report, the FDA continues to express concerns about farm animal operations close by and adjacent to produce growing fields, specifically peach orchards this time. The report, released June 11, outlines data from an investigation into a 2020 Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak linked to whole fresh peaches that sickened 101 people across 17 states, including 28 hospitalizations. It appears to be the first time a Salmonella outbreak has been linked to peaches, according to federal health officials.

Recommendations for Industry

Do You Have a COVID-19 Worker Vaccination Plan in Place?

As stated in the last COVID-19 Key Point above, companies are beginning to ask workers to return to the office, but according to New York Times published TinyPulse survey of HR leaders and managers on organization vaccine status, only about half have a plan in place either encouraging (48%) or mandating (7%) vaccination; another 15% “plan to” encourage (9%) or mandate (6%) them. But nearly 1/3 have no vaccine policy at all.

As organizations bring back workers, the risks of COVID-19 transmission risks increase, particularly with the heightened transmission rates of the Delta variant, so it is critical that companies make decisions and set policies on vaccines in order to protect workers – and the business.

While some employers may be hesitant to mandate vaccines fearing legal repercussions, the EEOC has stated that employers can require “all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19,” as long as employers comply with EEO considerations. Additionally, last week a U.S. District Judge upheld Houston Methodist Hospital's policy mandating employee vaccinations, dismissing the lawsuit brought by 117 workers over its requirement that they be vaccinated.

While the decision to mandate, encourage, or incent employees to be vaccinated will vary company to company, it is critical that a decision be made, a plan created, and rationale provided. As TAG discussed in our Friday, June 11, Recommendations for Industry, protecting your workers while abiding by OSHA’s new requirements leaves businesses with only three options – maintaining all COVID-19 worker protections, requiring verification of vaccine status, or mandating vaccines for all workers. (Read the article here.)

It’s not an easy decision, but having your vaccine plan to ensure duty of care for all workers is essential. If you’re not sure the direction you should go, give TAG a call. We can help.

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