Charlie Kirk Misleads on White House Vaccine Policy

States and certain workplaces can require individuals to be vaccinated.

As legal and public health expert Joanne Rosen of Johns Hopkins University has explained, the legal precedent for states to make vaccinations compulsory goes back to a 1905 Supreme Court case involving the smallpox vaccine. The court sided with the state, finding that the vaccination requirement was a reasonable regulation to protect public health.

Employers are also allowed to require their workers to get a vaccine, if vaccination is reasonably related to a person’s job, such as in the health care industry. In guidance issued in December 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that all employers can have a mandatory vaccination policy, including for COVID-19, as long as employers comply with federal laws stipulating that reasonable accommodations should be made for workers who cannot be immunized because of a disability or religious reason. The matter is likely to be tested in, because the COVID-19 vaccines have yet to be fully licensed.