Can Employers Mandate the COVID Vaccine? Assessing the Implications of Emergency Use Authorization

Abstract

As employers acclimate to our new normal, the COVID vaccine’s emergency status has led to extensive speculation about whether employers can mandate that their employees be vaccinated. While long-established immunizations, including those which have mostly relegated diseases like polio and smallpox to the annals of history, have full approvals from the FDA, the COVID vaccine is currently approved through an Emergency Use Authorization. This emergency process allows the use of unapproved medical products to prevent serious or life threatening diseases when there are no adequate alternatives.

This essay considers whether employers can mandate that their employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine despite its emergency authorization. The essay explores how vaccine mandates play out for non-emergency vaccines and then examines whether the COVID vaccine's Emergency Use Authorization leads to a different outcome.

Keywords: Employment Law, Vaccine Mandate, COVID Law, Business Law