Page 18 - DMN3Q21

Legal Corner
Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policies: Navigating Medical
and Religious Exemptions
By: Kathleen A. Westfall, Esq,* Kerr, Russell and Weber, PLC
Recently, various hospitals and healthcare systems in Michigan and throughout the United States have implemented policies which require COVID-19 vaccinations for healthcare workers and staff before a scheduled date. Mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies have also been endorsed by various medical societies and other healthcare organizations.
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise due to the rapid transmission of the COVID-19 Delta variant, and in light of the federal
Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent full-approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, many medical practices, facilities and groups are considering whether to require COVID-19 vaccinations for their healthcare workers and staff and how to handle possible medical or religious exemptions.
Medical practices and other employers which choose to mandate COVID-19 vaccination policies must be mindful of employees with medical conditions/ disabilities or religious objections (including non-theistic objections)
which preclude the employees from obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine. Some common examples of objections to vaccinations generally (not necessarily the COVID-19 vaccine) may include, but are not limited to:
"...AN EMPLOYER’S LEGAL OBLIGATION TO ACCOMMODATE AN EMPLOYEE UNDER ITS COVID-19 VACCINATION POLICY DUE TO A MEDICAL CONDITION IS DIFFERENT FROM ITS LEGAL OBLIGATION TO ACCOMMODATE AN EMPLOYEE DUE TO RELIGIOUS OBJECTIONS..."
18 Detroit Medical News Third Quarter 2021