Want a medical exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine? Good luck with that.

As the Biden administration urges workers across the U.S. to get their shots against COVID-19, many Americans are asking their employers to exempt them from vaccination requirements on medical grounds.

Yet while federal law requires companies to accommodate workers with qualifying medical conditions that interfere with vaccination (as well as those with strong religious beliefs), employers have considerable discretion in who gets a pass. So what kind of health condition or disability might excuse an individual from getting jabbed?  

Getting an employer to grant workers a medical exemption became a lot harder after the Food and Drug Administration in August fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, known as Comirnaty. A two-shot vaccine from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine have also been deemed safe and effective for emergency use in U.S. adults.