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
— The Solari Report (@solari_the) August 2, 2021
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
Among the statements the employee demands you agree to as a condition of the vaccine are the following:
- The vaccine is experimental.
The Covid vaccine is not experimental. An experimental vaccine is one that has not gone through clinical trials and authorization/approval processes. The Covid vaccines have completed significant clinical trials and the FDA has authorized their use. In fact, mRNA technology had been studied, developed, and refined for decades before being used in these vaccines. Plus, we have a huge trove of data from the hundreds of millions of doses that have been administered as to the vaccines’ safety and efficacy.
- The Emergency Use Authorization statute requires an employer to make certain disclosures about the vaccine and obtain informed consent.
All the EUA statute merely requires that individuals who take the vaccine "are informed of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product, of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product, and of the alternatives to the product that are available and of their benefits and risks." The informed consent relates to the person administering the vaccine, not an employer that mandates it.
- The Nuremberg Code prohibits forced medical experiments.
The Nuremberg Code is not a thing, at least not in this context. It's a set of research ethics principles for human experimentation created as a result of the Nuremberg trials at the end of WWII. It was a reaction to the medical atrocities committed by Dr. Josef Mengele and other Nazis during the war, with the intent of preventing people from suffering similar atrocities. To compare Nazi war crimes to a life-saving vaccine that has been tested and vetted is not just wrong, it's also the height of disgusting selfishness.
- You've reviewed the database of material adverse effects to the vaccine.
I think they are referring to the VAERS database. VAERS give anyone from health care professionals to the general public the chance to submit reports. The data is publicly available online and not vetted for accuracy. Literally, anyone can post anything. As the CDC makes clear, "Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem." Moreover, these vaccines are among the safest ever developed. Even if every report to VAERS is accurate, a few thousand serious adverse reactions as compared to 350 million doses dispensed? I'll take those odds, especially compared to a 1.7% chance of dying from Covid.
- HIPAA regulates your collection of employees' PHI (protected health information).
No, it doesn't. HIPAA applies only to "covered entities," defined as: (1) health plans; (2) healthcare clearinghouses; (3) healthcare providers that electronically transmit certain health information; and certain "business associates" of covered entities. If a business does not fall into one of those categories, HIPAA does not apply to it at all, including employers acting as employers. But at least they spelled HIPAA correctly. So bonus points for that.
- Employees can sue you in the event of an adverse reaction to the vaccine.
Employees cannot sue you. They might be able to file a workers' comp claim from an adverse reaction following a mandatory vaccine, but that's a far cry from a tort lawsuit.
Here's my free legal "advice"* for the day. If an employee hands you this document or something like it, toss it the circular file, remind the employee that the vaccine is a condition of employment, and terminate their employment if they refuse to comply. Period. You should have no tolerance for this level of insubordinate nonsense.
As for The Solari Report — which is merely aping asinine talking points straight out of the anti-vax disinformation playbook — and anyone else espousing similar ideas, you need to stop! You are creating exponentially more harm than good. This disinformation, couched as "legal advice," is exactly what's gotten our country to where we are today, battling Delta with no end in sight. It's ignorant and dangerous, and worse, some people believe it and use it as justification to avoid their responsibility to get vaccinated. As a result, people are getting sick and dying, and it's all preventable.
* This blog is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice. It is not intended to create, and does not create, an attorney-client relationship. You should not act upon any information presented here without seeking your own legal counsel. The legal information provided in this blog is general and should not be relied on as legal advice, which I cannot provide without full consideration of all relevant information relating to one’s individual situation. Still, The Solari Report is very, very wrong.