Most of Houston Methodist’s 25,000 workers complied when chief executive Marc Boom demanded in March that all of his hospital network’s staff be vaccinated against Covid-19. Yet 178 refused, and scores of them sued for unfair discrimination after Houston Methodist fired them.
A district judge ruled that the company had acted reasonably, as it is in the business of saving vulnerable patients’ lives. But the fear of a backlash from employees who distrust Covid-19 vaccines, or question an employer’s right to impose them, made most US companies reluctant to follow Boom’s example.
That calculation has suddenly changed as big businesses become alarmed that the Delta variant is causing a new wave of outbreaks, putting in peril the US economic recovery and their plans to return to pre-pandemic ways of working.