Can hospitals require workers to take the covid vaccine?

This article below was published in "Today's Hospitalist" on December 16, 2020. We would like to hear your response and reaction to this. Feel free to send you response to info@ahapinc.com.

Health care workers are slated to be among the first Americans to receive the covid vaccine, but what happens for workers who don’t want the vaccine—and refuse? According to a health care attorney writing in MDedge, the closest analogy is the laws surrounding influenza vaccines. Based on that body of the law, hospitals likely have the right to force workers to get the covid vaccination. Short of exceptions based on religion or disabilities, the courts have been fairly consistent in allowing health care employers to require vaccinations. And people who receive an exemption are generally required to take other measures to protect patients. The author did say that workers who refuse the vaccine probably won’t be fired immediately, as long as they take other measures like masking to mitigate the spread of the virus.