Hartford Business Journal

21 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 It's Personal We earn your trust by taking your success as personally as you do. However you define value, Shipman delivers. *Shipman is Ranked in Top Ten US Firms on National Law Journal 500's Women In Law Scorecard *Shipman is a 2020 Mansfield Certified Plus Law Firm w w w . s h i p m a n g o o d w i n . c o m | C O N N E C T I C U T | N E W Y O R K | W A S H I N G T O N D C Shipman & Goodwin LLP Contact: Leander A. Dolphin, Co-Managing Partner | (860) 251-5000 Facebook "f " Logo CMYK / .eps Facebook "f " Logo CMYK / .eps FOCUS: LAW be unsafe has definitely weakened," she said. Handling exemptions As recently as May and June, most major employers said they were not actively considering vaccine mandates. Many in the corporate sector and public health circles believed the adult vaccination rate would reach 70% — considered the threshold for national herd immunity — within months, providing a protective shield to Americans who can't or won't get immunized by lowering overall transmission. The actual number of fully- vaccinated adults has stalled well short of that, however, at around 60%, and the delta variant is boosting infection rates to their highest levels since last winter, at the height of the pandemic before vaccines were widely available to the public. With many corporations now willing to push forward despite possible legal blowback, employment lawyers say discussions concerning the feasibility of mandates have somewhat gone by the wayside as a new legal frontier — exemptions — comes to the fore. "The conversation has turned from, 'Do we mandate vaccines or not?' to 'How do we manage requests for exemptions?'" Schwartz said. Schwartz said the exemption requests he's seeing fall into three major categories: disability, religious beliefs and pregnancy, usually in conjunction with other health issues. In those cases, he said, exempt employees will probably be required to wear high-grade face masks and submit to weekly COVID-19 testing to ensure they are not infected. Warren said employers have a large body of case law to fall back on when formulating exemption policies, most of it based on cases involving the flu vaccine. Still, there could be nuances to work out, she said, because the courts have to balance legal protections with safety concerns. "A religious exemption, for instance, might look different in a nursing home — where it could create an undue hardship — versus in an office setting," she said. It remains to be seen how many Connecticut-based companies will ultimately embrace vaccine mandates. With the state's comparatively high vaccination rate, employers may see less of a need to implement one than their counterparts in the South or West, and some businesses may opt to rely on other tactics to encourage immunization, such as bonuses or other incentives. So far, only one large-scale private employer headquartered in Connecticut — Bloomfield health insurer Cigna — has moved to make vaccines mandatory. Eric Gjede, vice president of public policy at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said the organization has not seen an "overwhelming amount" of companies contemplating mandates. It remains to be seen, Gjede said, if the FDA's Pfizer vaccine approval increases interest. CBIA, which represents thousands of member companies in the state, has said the vaccine mandate issue should be left up to individual businesses, as they have the best insight into their own needs. "We have taken the position that it should be an individual employer decision," Gjede said. Warren offered a similar assessment, noting that companies will arrive at different conclusions based on their line of work, brand and customers. A healthcare firm, for instance, might consider a vaccine mandate to be consistent with their overall mission in a way that's fundamentally different from businesses in other sectors. "This is not a one-size-fits-all situation," she said. "It's employer- specific, as it should be." Who is vaccinated in CT? As of Aug. 26, 2.2 million of the state's 3.6 million residents were fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. Here's how those numbers break down: ■ 97% of those over the age of 65 ■ 88% between 55-64 ■ 79% between 45-54 ■ 77% between 35-44 ■ 68% between 25-34 ■ 65% between 18-24 ■ 74% between 16-17 ■ 62% between 12-15 Source: Coverage data is based on what is reported to CT WiZ, except the estimated coverage for 65 years and older, which is taken from the CDC COVID Data Tracker.

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