The Ethics Behind Covid-19 vaccination requirement in Workplace

The approval of Covid-19 vaccines, such as Pfizer/BioNTech, by health officials in UK, Canada and many other countries have started to arise the dilemma of whether employers can insist on the inoculation of their employees.

An examination of the issue while considering virtue ethics evokes a dilemma on how strictly an employer can enforce their employees to get immunized against Covid-19. Virtue ethics elucidates an individual’s sense of honesty and analyzing the consequences of their action. Sometimes, it is important for individual employees to understand that in overcoming their fear of needles can keep their wider community safe. As Dr. Hendrix of Advent Health explicates, for a patient to be convinced of vaccination, it is important to reframe the patient’s form of thinking, discuss health effects with their family doctors and consider therapy [1]. Therefore, to analyze the issue of insisting vaccination, employers must discuss the situation and consult health experts to properly make a convenient decision for the employees.

An analysis of the issue through utilitarianism renders to maximize the amount of people immunized against the novel virus, Covid-19. Utilitarianism describes the functionality and how effectively useful a technique is in accomplishing an overall goal. In general, as more people get vaccinated against Covid-19, the less chance of being a carrier and spreading the virus to those who are unable to be vaccinated [2]. However, this is depended on the field of the employee’s work. As indicated in Webber’s article, “A worker in a care home may be a greater risk if they are unvaccinated than a worker in a general office” [3]. More specifically, it is important to understand that the safety of an unvaccinated employee depends on the people in their work environment. The more an unvaccinated employee is surrounded by vaccinated people at their workplace, the lower chance of contracting or spreading the Covid-19 virus. Therefore, it is important for the employer to discuss with each of their employees to ensure the ideal method to sustain safety in workplace.

Additionally, viewing the situation deontologically indicates that an individual’s choice not to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus must be respected as it is their universally declared right. Deontological ethics is the protection of individual rights and moral obligation. As Heycock, a partner at Farrer & Co descriptively explains, “Any employer who requires employees to receive a vaccine could be open to discrimination claims on religious grounds, given gelatine derived from pigs is often used in mass produced vaccines,” [3]. It is important to understand that in a cooperative and diverse work environment, employers must respect their employees’ beliefs and rights. As governments themselves are not able to force all their citizens for inoculation, employers are expected to accept their employee’s decision.

Essentially, with the process of vaccination continuing and the analysis of three various ethical reasonings discussed, forms of enforcement on employee’s vaccination must be avoided. As each work environment is different, it is ideal for employers to discuss with their unvaccinated employees about the consequences and professionally acquire advice from health experts to resolve safety issues regarding their specific situations. As mentioned in Webber’s article, I agree that some occupation may justify their employees to be vaccinated but being aware, educated and discussing to resolve issues is far better than compulsion.

References

[1] Shawn Hendrix. 2020. How Fear of Needles Starts — and How You Can Overcome It (September 2020). Retrieved January 17, 2021 from https://www.adventhealth.com/hospital/adventhealth-tampa/blog/how-fear-needles-starts-andhow-you-can-overcome-it

[2] Jordan Stevenson. 2020. Ethical framework for COVID-19 vaccine distribution (December 2020). Retrieved January 17, 2021 from https://www.ontario.ca/page/ethical-framework-covid-19-vaccine-distribution

[3] Ashleigh Webber. 2020. Ethical dilemma: Can employers insist on Covid-19 vaccinations? (December 2020). Retrieved January 17, 2021 from https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/covid-vaccinations-ethicsemployers/?fbclid=IwAR0HcTFyNRQKe8OQViVte9esxJoHEUw1rxm9IT43IGEU1qwkYcgxxs MMCV4