Coronavirus Update 8–10–2021: Vaccines and religions accommodation requests

"I need an accommodation for your mandatory vaccination policy. The vaccine is against my religion."

As more employers roll out vaccine mandates, more will be faced with this exact scenario.

Title VII requires an employer to reasonably accommodate an employee's sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances, as long as the accommodation does not impose an undue hardship. 

Two, and only two, religions, however, actually support people not getting vaccinated as a tenet of the religion — Christian Scientists and the Dutch Reformed Church. There are an estimated 106,000 Christian Scientists in the United States, and 194,000 members of the Reformed Church. That's a tidy total of 300,000 potential religious objectors based on their religion's actual teachings, period (or only 0.25% of all employees). But that minuscule number does not end the inquiry.

Coronavirus Update 8–9–2021: CNN fires three employees for lying about vaccine status

CNN — which is requiring all in-person employees to be fully vaccinated — has fired three employees for going into the office unvaccinated.

In an email to staff (as reported by Deadline), CNN president Jeff Zucker wrote:

In the past week, we have been made aware of three employees who were coming to the office unvaccinated. All three have been terminated. Let me be clear — we have a zero-tolerance policy on this. You need to be vaccinated to come to the office. And you need to be vaccinated to work in the field, with other employees, regardless of whether you enter an office or not. Period. We expect that in the weeks ahead, showing proof of vaccination may become a formal part of the WarnerMedia Passcard process. Regardless, our expectations remain in place.

The 11th nominee for the “Worst Employer of 2021” is … the Cosby Suite

If you're my age, when you hear the name Activision you think of games like Kaboom!, Pitfall!, and the Atari 2600. If you're younger you might think of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or Call of Duty. No matter your age, after you read this lawsuit, you'll only be able to think, "OMG, what the hell is wrong with them?!"

According to the lawsuit the State of California is bringing against Activision Blizzard, "During a company event … [key World of Warcarft developer Alex] Afrasiabi would hit on female employees, telling [them] he wanted to marry them, attempting to kiss them, and putting his arms around them. This was in plain view of other male employees, including supervisors, who had to intervene and pull him off female employees. Afrasiabi was so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the 'Cosby Suite' after alleged rapist Bill Cosby."

Coronavirus Update 8–5–2021: Debunking dangerous anti-vax theories and organizations like The Solari Report

You've read my posts from earlier this week, listened to the newly self-appointed quarterback of Team Vaccine Mandate, and decided to require the Covid vaccine for all of your on-site employees. After you announce your mandate, an employee enters your office to present the following ultimatum: "I'll get the vaccine," the employee tells you, "as soon as you sign off on this document." 

The employee then hands you the following form, which it found on a website called The Solari Report.

Form for Employees Whose Employers Are Requiring Covid-19 Injection
This puts employers in a box. This is a form every employee who is faced with this needs to submit to the authorized officer of their company. It is 100% legally accurate, forces them to respond to your questions ttps://t.co/stuFAl0888">pic.twitter.com/stuFAl0888

— The Solari Report (@solari_the) August 2, 2021

Coronavirus Update 8–4–2021: The dam is breaking on mandatory Covid vaccines, and the flood is coming

The news on mandated Covid vaccinations is coming fast and furious, from courts, governments, and private businesses.

Coronavirus Update 8–3–2021: What the CDC’s new mask guidance actually says and means

Since there was so much confusion that resulted from the last time the CDC updated its mask guidance for the fully vaccinated, I thought it best to take a look at its most recent pronouncement, explain exactly what it means, and detail whom the CDC recommends should now be masking up indoors.

According to the CDC, the fully vaccinated should wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission, meaning 50 or more cases per 100,000 people. For the unvaccinated, the guidance remains as it always has been—mask up indoors and in most cases outdoors.

What is an "area of substantial or high transmission? As of today, any county colored orange or red on this map. 

Nearly 80 percent of all counties in the United States meet this definition.

Coronavirus Update 8–2–2021: Employers, now is the time to mandate Covid vaccines

As short as a few weeks ago, I'd have told you that the choice to get vaccinated is a personal one, and that employers that mandated the Covid vaccine for their employees were over-stepping into their employees' medical privacy.

That was before last week's news that the Delta variant has taken hold and taken off. As we now know that Delta is more transmissible than the chickenpox or the common flu, impacting younger people, and likely more dangerous than prior variants, our country is in a dark place with this virus, and it's rapidly getting darker.