Google will require employees to be vaccinated before returning to offices | Hacker News Reader

Google will require employees to be vaccinated before returning to offices

theverge.com

36 pointsmvgoogler11 comments

Do they have a policy for what happens if your doctor recommends you do not get the vaccine due to allergies or reasons related to your immune system?

Yes, apparently there will be an exceptions process: https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/vacc...

Isn't health data private in the USA?

Not universally, and specifically not in this case (at least federally): https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-533636796046

"Businesses do have special considerations around discrimination outlined in the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act, but these would not preclude a company from asking a customer or employee about vaccination status."

This needs to be changed either businesses can get all private health information or they can get none.

Our private information is not a candy in the candy shop so anybody can pick whatever he likes at the moment and "consume" it.

In Europe GDPR prevents private businesses to seek and gather any private health information from employees because there are many faces of discrimination not only vaccine one.

Vaccination status isn’t private health information in the same way a cancer diagnosis is. Vaccination’s are public health measures not private health measures.

Employers need to know if their employees represent a risk to the health of their employees and customers. Nobody wants to employ Typhoid Mary.

We should be extremely wary of giving employers our entire medical history, which is illegal for employers to collect in the US as well (under the ADA and other laws). We should have no concerns giving them our vaccination history for at least two reasons: 1) that info is already held by the government and we’ve already given it to K-12 schools plus university. And 2) as sensible members of society, we are vaccinated so there’s nothing for our employers to act against us on.

Are you suggesting in your last line that European companies aren't going to enforce vaccine mandates?

I suspect in all the cases where companies require vaccines, it will just be the company asking people, not inspecting medical records. I mean, given all the details about the reality of society, doesn't that seem like a more probable hypothesis?

it's unlikely there will be any large changes to private health data laws at the federal level of US in the near future. The trend appears to be that states will do this instead.

That's a great idea: give us more reasons not to take the vaccine. Or are they just gonna fire them?

Aren't Google bosses aware that vaccinated people still get sick and can infect others?!

Have you heard about unvaccinated workers? Even worse!

There's no difference with the Delta variant though. Also, let's not even start on Lambda variant! I guess Google execs are praying that it doesn't become the dominant one in America soon!

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