GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — With mounting concerns over the COVID-19 delta variant, state and local governments across the country are taking a stance to incentivize more people to get vaccinated.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a new policy Tuesday that will require people in the city to present proof of vaccination to take part in certain indoor activities in the hopes of preventing the spread of COVID-19. So who can require you to get the vaccine?
Thank you for the support, @POTUS, and for speaking the truth up there today. New York City will work with any state or city who wants to join us in requiring vaccines to save lives and stop COVID in its tracks. https://t.co/yoXZ9CdFP3
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) August 3, 2021
While your state and local government can't require you to get the vaccine, they do have the authority to make businesses require proof of vaccination.
"Look at what they've done during the course of the COVID pandemic and really assess fully what government's capable of," said James Hodge, a public health law professor at Arizona State University. "We flat out closed those businesses against the backdrop of a massively and horrifically spreading disease like COVID-19. So if we can close them, we've got the ability from a public health perspective to keep them open but require them to check for vaccine related status."
He says private sector entities like businesses and private schools can also require you to be vaccinated because unlike government entities, they don't have to adhere to constitutional standards. Additionally, private sector entities are not covered by The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
"It has to follow federal and state laws about who should get exemptions, like persons with religious exemptions or anybody who's medically contraindicated to vaccines," Hodge said. "But you will see more private sector vaccine mandates in the near future because they don't have to adhere to some of those same constitutional norms."
In addition, workplaces can require their employees to be vaccinated unless the state legislature prohibits it. Hodge expects more employers will do so as workers return to the office.
"Unless your state intervenes and determines that you cannot mandate a vaccine for employment purposes, the conclusion is when vaccines would render a workplace safer or allow your employees to return to work from their virtual settings, you can mandate it in most cases," Hodge said.