Compulsory jabs: Pressure grows on anti-vaxxers
A growing number of countries and territories around the world are forcing people, often in specific sectors, to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Here is a roundup:
Mandatory in Tajikistan, Vatican
Tajikistan and the Vatican are among the rare countries imposing vaccinations on all adults.
In ex-Soviet Tajikistan the official news agency has published a government decree obliging all over 18s to be vaccinated, without giving further details.
In the Vatican, the world’s smallest state, vaccinations were made obligatory for residents and workers in February, with those refusing liable to be sacked.
Italy
Several countries or territories have imposed vaccinations on certain sections of the population.
Italian doctors and health workers in the public and private sector must get vaccinated or face being banned from working directly with patients.
A group of 300 Italian health workers have gone to court to try to get the obligation overturned and a hearing is scheduled on July 14.
Britain
On June 16 the British government announced all care home staff in England will need to be fully vaccinated.
If approved by parliament, the new legislation means anyone working in a care home must have two doses of a vaccine from October unless they have a medical exemption.
The rules will apply to all workers employed directly by the care home, as well as to agency workers and volunteers.
Russia
President Vladimir Putin is against mandatory vaccinations nationwide.
The mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin ordered mandatory jabs for residents of the Russian capital working in the service industry on June 16.
Some 60 percent of all service industry workers in Moscow—just over two million people—were ordered to be fully vaccinated by August 15.
Since then other localities have taken similar measures, including badly-hit Saint Petersburg.
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Tech CEOs were wary of vaccine mandates. That’s changing.
Most large tech companies are still “encouraging, but not requiring” employees to get vaccinated. But interest in vaccine mandates has jumped since California said vaccinated workers could take off their masks.
Most tech giants say they’ll “encourage, but not require” employees to get vaccinated before returning to the office. But as more companies reopen their doors, four software makers now say they’ll turn away unvaccinated workers.
Adobe, VMware, Twilio and Asana are all mandating vaccines for those who come in this summer, the four companies said in June. That’s a departure from a norm that industry leaders like Google and Facebook set earlier this year.
“A few months ago, it was very much like, ‘We don’t want to do that. We don’t want to require vaccinations,'” said Sheeva Ghassemi-Vanni, a partner in the employment practices and litigation groups of the Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West.
That’s still the norm: Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft are among the big names that are not imposing vaccine mandates.
But in the last few weeks, Ghassemi-Vanni has been fielding more calls from clients who want to know how they can require employees to get vaccinated, which potential legal issues they need to avoid and how to accommodate employees who refuse.
“It’s not a total pendulum swing at this point, but it’s definitely gaining momentum,” Ghassemi-Vanni said. “I’ll be interested to see, in the fall and then through Q1 of 2022, what employers end up doing.”