Can your state require you to get the COVID-19 vaccine? At least one has a pending bill…

Enough with the “Can companies require employee COVID-19 vaccinations?” articles already! Yes, they probably can, subject to disability and religious accommodations.

But, what if, instead of an employer mandating vaccinations, an entire state did so for nearly all of its residents? No, I wasn’t just clickbaiting you with the title of this blog post. One state actually has a pending bill.

Oh, now I have your attention, don’t I?

New York State Assembly Bill A11179 was introduced earlier this month. It would require a COVID-19 vaccine to be administered per the department of health’s COVID-19 vaccination administration program and mandates vaccination in “certain situations.”

What the heck does that mean, certain situations? Well, a couple of things need to happen first:

both the FDA and NY Clinical Advisory Task Force approve a COVID-19 vaccine as safe and effective,
the vaccine gets distributed, and
public health officials determine that New Yorkers are not developing sufficient immunity from COVID-19.

Then, NY will require vaccinations for everyone proven to be safe for vaccinations as “shown by clinical data.” The only other exceptions are for people with medical exemptions. (The bill says nothing about religious objections).

The bill is in committee right now, where I imagine it will languish for a while. So, that gives us some time, you and me, to talk about it. So, I’m gonna go pop some popcorn while you click here and email me. I want to know what you think about state or federally-mandated vaccinations for COVID-19.