A recent poll by The Washington Post and ABC shows that a majority of unvaccinated Americans will resign from their jobs if employers make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory. Seventy percent of respondents who are not self-employed would quit work if they were not granted a religious or medical exemption. The poll was conducted on Aug. 29 with the participation of 1,006 adults.
Fifty-two percent supported businesses mandating vaccination for employees. Eight in 10 Democrats agreed to such a requirement, while six in 10 Republicans strongly opposed it. Independents were split almost equally on the issue. Only two in 10 Americans said that their employers want workers to get the jab.
“Among workers whose employer lacks a mandate, about 3 in 10 are unvaccinated. Asked what they would likely do if their employer imposed a mandate, 16 percent of that group say they would get vaccinated while 35 percent would ask for a medical or religious exemption and 42 percent would quit. If no exemption was given, 72 percent of unvaccinated workers say they would quit their job rather than get vaccinated,” states The Washington Post.
Vaccination mandates are likely to become a major flashpoint as businesses and governments seek to impose these measures on the public. Such mandates are largely fueled by the FDA granting full approval to Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine last month.
However, nonprofit Liberty Counsel points out that the existing Pfizer vaccines remain under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) while there are no supplies for the approved Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine. This might cause confusion, forcing employees to inject themselves with a EUA vaccine thinking that it is an approved one. The group also points out that even if employers implement vaccine mandates of the approved Comirnaty vaccine, workers can still refuse it.
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“Despite whether these COVID shots are licensed or not, they cannot be mandatory under Title VII. In general, employee vaccine religious exemption requests must be accommodated, where a reasonable accommodation exists without undue hardship to the employer, pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” says Liberty Counsel. Title VII protections are also applicable to nonreligious beliefs related to ideas of life, purpose, death, and morality.
Vaccine mandates
Among companies that are mandating vaccines for employees is United Airlines that issued the requirement last month. The company insisted that its 67,000 person workforce should be vaccinated by this fall while stating that it would consider exemptions in some cases. United has warned that if an employee’s request for an exemption on the basis of religion is denied, they should be vaccinated within five weeks of receiving the denial notice. Failing that, they will be expelled.
Delta Airlines has slapped a $200 surcharge on the healthcare premiums of unvaccinated workers. Alaska Airlines, Delta Airlines, and American Airlines have announced that they will end pay protections for employees who contract COVID-19 in cases where they are not vaccinated.
The Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) in Detroit mandated healthcare workers to get vaccinated by Sept. 10. Those who do not comply will be suspended and given time until Oct. 1 to get inoculated.
Fifty-one employees have banded together and filed a lawsuit against HFHS. They argue that the mandate violated their right to bodily autonomy and their right to reject medical treatments as interpreted under the 14th Amendment. The lawsuit also cites data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to say that “13,627 deaths have occurred in the U.S. as a result of COVID-19 ‘vaccines.’”
In Oregon, a coalition of firefighters and police officers have sued Governor Kate Brown due to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate issued for state employees. In Arizona, Attorney General Mark Brnovich has warned the Tucson government that its vaccine mandate for city employees is unconstitutional.
“The legislature’s intent was clear when it passed S.B. 1824 earlier this year – government entities from the local to state level cannot mandate COVID-19 vaccines. This law was further supplemented by the Governor’s Executive Order 2021-18 (E.O. 2021-18) in August 2021. In the AGO’s opinion, Tucson public employees could rely in good faith on E.O. 2021-18 and state law to refuse the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” a press release from Brnovich stated.
Jim Rickards is the author of “The New Great Depression: Winners and Losers in a Post-Pandemic World.” In an interview with The Epoch Times, he warned that vaccine mandates would create a two-tier system in the United States. He said that such mandates are a “monomaniacal drive” to force every American to get vaccinated.
“If you want to participate in society, whether it’s going to school, dining out, social life, sports, whatever, you have to be vaccinated. If you’re not vaccinated, you’re going to be, in effect, in the basement. You’re going to be crammed down in the basement. You’ll be treated like a leper,” Rickards said.
