From Walt Disney World to Goldman Sachs, a flurry of private and public employers are requiring workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after the federal government gave full approval to the Pfizer shot. And the number is certain to grow much higher.
For the past eight months, coronavirus shots were dispensed in the U.S. under emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. Some workers and unions objected to getting the vaccine – and some employers were reluctant to require it – because it had yet to receive FDA full approval. That happened on Monday.
“The FDA decision takes that off the table,” said Devjani Mishra, a New York-based attorney with the firm Littler Mendelson, which specializes in workplace matters. She and others in the worlds of business, law and health predicted more companies will mandate vaccines for their workforces.
Shortly after the FDA acted, Walt Disney World reached a deal with its unions to require all workers at its theme park in Orlando, Florida, to be vaccinated.
Goldman Sachs told employees Tuesday that it will require anyone who enters the bank’s U.S. offices to be fully vaccinated starting Sept. 7, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.