Pfizer's FDA approval could open floodgates for corporate vaccine mandates

The Food and Drug Administration's clearance of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, which had been rolled out to the public for emergency-use only, paves the way for more employers to require that their workers get jabbed.

Although a number of businesses, colleges and other organizations were already requiring workers to be inoculated, many corporations have been hesitant to implement a mandate for a drug not yet fully approved by regulators. Labor attorneys expect Monday's announcement by the FDA to open the floodgates for mandates across the board. "The FDA's approval is a real game changer for the workplace," said Jason Habinsky, an employment attorney at Haynes Boone, a Dallas, Texas-based law firm. "Employers essentially have the blessing of the federal government that the vaccine is safe and effective and approved, and an employer is no longer making a unilateral judgment call on whether or not the vaccine is effective. So this really gets employers across the finish line in terms of being comfortable mandating it in the workplace."