Editorial: Employers have the right to request vaccines | Editorials and opinions

It cannot be denied that unvaccinated people are at the greatest risk of contracting COVID-19 and suffering serious consequences.

Regardless of your political beliefs, the numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control don’t lie. Sure, there is a small risk that unvaccinated people will contract the virus and even die. But the odds are a lot more in your favor if you’re fully vaccinated.

So we wonder why an Aiken County state legislature is so adamant about the COVID-19 vaccine that some employers, particularly Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, are calling for. She asked SC Governor Henry McMaster to intervene on a letter last week.

“A vaccine should not be imposed on adult adults who can make their own decisions,” wrote Melissa Oremus, R-Aiken, in a letter that she also posted on Facebook. “I beg you to stop this madness of a compulsory vaccination mandate, and the freedom-loving citizens of South Carolina beg you to end this madness.”

Fortunately, McMaster did nothing at Oremus’ request. His compatriot Republican in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, recently banned the vaccination mandate in his state.

“In our state, we haven’t told our companies what to do, and we are not going to tell them what not to do,” McMaster told reporters.

The irony of some Savannah River Site workers who refused to be vaccinated has not escaped us; Radioactive waste is stored and processed in the nuclear reserve.

But Oremus and like-minded voters insist this is not about science. It is about freedom of choice, it is said.

But Oremus, who says she had the virus, offered medical reports in her letter to the governor.

“We all know that natural immunity is best and yet people must get this vaccine,” she wrote. “… For those who have had COVID, like me, there is no need to give our bodies a vaccine while we still have the antibodies.”

Last time we checked, employers have the right to ask their employees to do certain things.

Evidence of vaccination is one of them, although it is sure to spark lawsuits like last week by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions employees against their employer.

The lawsuit argues that if the mandate is in place, people will be irreparably harmed. (Notwithstanding the fact that some of these workers are on site at a nuclear facility, where heavy construction work and handling of hazardous materials are the order of the day.)

The Savannah River Site managers disagree. Scientific evidence, said Stuart MacVean, President and CEO of SRNS, in an employee memo, led her to be vaccinated. Around 95% of the 5,500 employees of the SRNS are already vaccinated.

“We are seeing the highest case rate in the field since the pandemic began and the severity of the disease is especially difficult for those who are not vaccinated,” MacVean wrote in September.

The SRNS decree is in line with President Biden’s plan of mandating vaccinations for hospital staff, federal contractors, and companies with more than 100 employees. A judge in New Mexico denied a request from Los Alamos National Laboratory staff to end the vaccine mandate.

The good news is that more and more South Carolinians are being fully vaccinated. By Friday, nearly 54% had achieved this status and nearly 62% had received their first shot.

The bad news? Politicians are still behind much of the discussion about COVID-19 and vaccinations.

Just think about all of the vaccines that are required before children can go to school. Getting a full vaccination against COVID-19 as a working condition shouldn’t be that difficult for an adult.