The first rush of lawsuits coming from employees who’ve tested positive for COVID is so extensive that Fisher Philips already has a COVID lawsuit tracking map.
But this isn’t the only wave of lawsuits and OSHA fines hitting employers. A newer one is coming, and it’s not about masks, COVID transmission, or vaccines…
It’s about immunity.
The CDC has recently opened a can of worms for employers that are mandating their employees to either get vaccinated or be laid off by confirming that people who have already been infected with the virus have the same levels of immunity as vaccinated people.
Over 150 studies have proven this as well, making the science clear.
The purpose of the COVID vaccine
The original goal of the COVID vaccine was to build immunity in people before they could contract the virus. Naturally, it’s a logical path for most of us who want to avoid being infected with a potentially deadly virus.
However, for those who have already had and recovered from COVID, all studies show that they too have a pretty decent level of immunity that lasts for about as long as vaccinated immunity. With that in mind, terminating an employee who’s already immune just because they didn’t get vaccinated can invite a new set of discriminatory lawsuits.
The entire purpose of mandating the COVID vaccine for employees is to provide workplace immunity. If you’re planning on firing an employee who has recently had COVID and hasn’t been vaccinated, be prepared to face discriminatory lawsuits.
If it’s too late and you’ve already laid people off, it’s time to consider bringing them back.
This is all possible with immunity management.
What is immunity management?
If you want to protect your business from these lawsuits while simultaneously continuing to protect your employees, you need to implement COVID immunity testing in the workplace.
This science-backed solution will help you determine who needs to start their vaccine sequence or get a booster, and who’s sufficiently protected as they are.
OSHA investigators are itching to find employers who aren’t doing something to keep the spread at bay, and this is the perfect way to keep them off of your back. The protocols you implemented last year will likely be seen as outdated due to all the new research, tools, and information now available.
The key to keeping lawsuits and OSHA fines at bay while maintaining employee confidence and safety involves shifting your COVID strategy towards immunity management.
Immunity management offers insight into each employee’s protective levels of COVID-fighting antibodies to help you assess the collective protective status of your workforce’s health. When each employee is armed with the knowledge of their own protection, they’ll feel a lot better and safer about coming home back to their loved ones after work.
This strategy is much more accurate than strictly relying on vaccines and booster timelines or PCR testing. It’s also less expensive and cumbersome than you may think. Immunity management allows you to decrease downtime and testing interruptions and increase efficiency by moving to a process of managing immunity as opposed to vaccine status alone.
It’s important to note, however, that immunity management does not rely on standard, over-the-counter antibody tests.
Instead, the FDA/EUA approved Anzu Immunity Profile relies on neutralizing antibody tests that quantify your number of remaining functional antibodies rather than just shooting out a positive or negative result. This number is then converted to a percentage and displayed in a HIPAA-compliant Immunity Management Dashboard for easy monitoring.
If an employees’ numbers are in the red zone, you’ll know when to take action. If their numbers are in the green zone, they’re sufficiently protected.
While neither your antibody levels nor the vaccine can prevent you from contracting the virus, they can stop you from getting seriously ill. Understanding your own immune strength and creating protocols around your employees’ immune strength is a key component of workplace safety.
To learn more about the Immunity Management System, set up an Immunity Protocol Review session today.
