Raleigh and Durham say they won’t force city employees to get COVID vaccine

The cities of Raleigh and Durham will not make coronavirus vaccines mandatory for city employees, despite being able to do so, according to lawyers and experts.

Julia Milstead, spokesperson for the city of Raleigh, said the focus is on education and encouraging people to get vaccinated.

“Right now, it’s a personal decision people have to take,” she said. There have been no discussions about making it mandatory, she said.

Beverly Thompson, spokesperson for the city of Durham, said it also is not requiring city workers to get vaccinated.

Raleigh has 3,925 full-time employees and 3,081 part-time employees, Milstead said.

According to Durham’s website, the city has roughly 2,400 employees.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two vaccines so far from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Studies show the vaccines are highly effective in preventing COVID-19, with a very low risk of allergic reactions, at 1.3 reactions per million vaccine doses administered, according to Medical News Today.

People may experience a sore arm, headache, or fatigue for a day or two after receiving the vaccine, according to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

Despite the vaccine’s effectiveness, Apex Fire Chief Keith McGee, who has tested positive and recovered from COVID-19, said in an interview that only about 60% of his firefighters would get the vaccine. He said he thinks people should get the vaccine, The News & Observer previously reported.

According to a November poll from Pew Research Center, 60% of Americans said they would definitely or probably get the coronavirus vaccine.

The number of coronavirus-related deaths in the United States has passed 350,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In North Carolina, some hospitals are reaching capacity as the daily number of people hospitalized nears 4,000.

Experts say mandatory vaccines legal

Experts and lawyers say governments and government agencies like the Apex Fire Department can make vaccines mandatory for their employees.

“Nothing prohibits a North Carolina public employer from requiring some or all of its employees to be vaccinated against particular illnesses, including COVID-19,” according to a blog post written by UNC School of Government professor Diane Juffras, who specializes in employer-employee relations and employment law.

Mandatory vaccinations do not violate the U.S. Constitution either, Juffras wrote.

A 1905 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled mandatory vaccinations during a public health emergency do not violate the Constitution, Juffras wrote. The court upheld a Massachusetts law that permitted municipalities to order vaccination of not just public employees, but all residents, according to the blog post.

Government agencies can mandate vaccines, with some exceptions, said Dorit Reiss, a law professor who specializes in vaccine policies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission has guidelines for how the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights act could allow exemptions for people with disabilities or religious obligations.

Disabilities can include having an allergic reaction to a vaccine, Reiss said.

Private employers have much more leeway in whether or not they require vaccines, Reiss said.

Vaccine mandates in workplaces are not new. Some businesses require flu vaccines. People have tried to sue businesses for mandating vaccines. But Reiss said few succeed, especially when employers try to make accommodations such as allowing people to work from home, if the job allows it.

But when accommodations are not possible, it is very difficult for employees to successfully sue their employer, said Cate Edwards, a partner at Raleigh law firm Edwards Kirby, who represents employees.

Edwards said North Carolina state law would allow employees to bring claims against employers for mandating a vaccine, but she doubts the claims would be successful.

For people who are objecting to taking the vaccine on religious grounds, “it has to be a reasonable belief,” Edwards said.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center lists religions that have theological objections to vaccinations.

This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 8:30 AM with the headline "Raleigh and Durham say they won’t force city employees to get COVID vaccine."