{"id":146826,"date":"2021-08-23T14:09:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T00:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=146826"},"modified":"2021-08-23T14:30:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T00:30:15","slug":"oahu-employers-vaccination-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/08\/23\/oahu-employers-vaccination-mandates\/","title":{"rendered":"O\u02bbahu employers strongly support vaccination mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/manoa-uhero-business-survey-july.jpg\" alt=\"table setting on a table with a chair\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-125373\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/manoa-uhero-business-survey-july.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/manoa-uhero-business-survey-july-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/manoa-uhero-business-survey-july-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A majority of businesses and organizations on <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> report having a large proportion of vaccinated employees, and that they already do or likely will require employees to be vaccinated. Those are some of the findings from a comprehensive, 41-page University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> public impact research report released on August 23, by the <a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Economic Research Organization<\/a> (<abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>) and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paac.info\/\">Pacific Alliance Against COVID-19<\/a> (<abbr>PAAC<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n<p>Main survey findings of &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/BUSINESS_SUMMARY_REPORT_UHERO_PAAC.pdf\">COVID-19 Mandates: Recommendations for <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Businesses<\/a>&rdquo; include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Vaccination rates<\/strong>: Most businesses and organizations report a large proportion of vaccinated employees. More than 80&#37; of businesses in the survey reported more than 80&#37; of their employees have been fully vaccinated. The largest businesses of 50 or more employees reported the lowest proportion of vaccinations at their workplaces.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vaccination mandate<\/strong>: 64.5&#37; of businesses reported that they already do or likely will require employees to be vaccinated. More than one-third of the businesses already require vaccination of employees, and an additional 15.1&#37; are unsure or still deciding. Main reasons why employers do not consider a vaccination mandate include employee resistance, personal preference of employer, belief that it is not legal or constitutional to mandate vaccination, and that it is not their organization&#8217;s responsibility to do so. Of the businesses that already do or likely will impose a vaccine mandate, 80&#37; report that they did so to increase safety at work; protect employees, customers and the community; and decrease the spread of COVID-19 in the state.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Testing mandate<\/strong>: 60.6&#37; of businesses responded that they already do or likely will require unvaccinated employees to be regularly tested for COVID-19. An additional 18.5&#37; of businesses reported that they are unsure or still deciding.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vaccine passport or requiring negative test from clients<\/strong>: Only 35.5&#37; of businesses have already in place or likely will require vaccine passports or a negative test from clients or customers. Nearly half of businesses (48.5&#37;) reported that they wouldn\u2019t impose this requirement on their clients\/customers. An additional 15.9&#37; of businesses have not yet made a decision on this policy. Customer resistance, logistical feasibility, personal preferences and perceived business disadvantages were the main reasons given for businesses unwilling to impose this restriction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Based on the results of the survey, the research team recommended vaccination and regular testing for employees; increasing COVID-19 testing; clear guidance for business from state government; coordination with vaccine providers; and that vaccine passports be mandated in high-risk businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The report shows very strong support for mandates across vaccination or regular testing among employees in the State of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,&rdquo; said <strong>Ruben Juarez<\/strong>, a <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa professor of economics in the <a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Social Sciences<\/a> and a <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr> research fellow. &ldquo;Significantly, the report was released on the same day that the Pfizer vaccine was granted <abbr title=\"Federal Drug Administration\">FDA<\/abbr> approval&#8212;which  together are very impactful and meaningful. With State of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> guidance to overcome logistical issues and customer resistance, these collectively paves the way for a vaccine passport in high-risk businesses.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>There were 884 businesses that participated in the August 2021 survey, with more than 95&#37; of them located on <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>. Most businesses in the survey had 10 or fewer employees (73.4&#37;), with more than 20 sectors represented, ranging from tourism, retail, and food and beverage, to smaller offices, real estate and non-profit organizations.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Juarez, other authors of the report are <strong>Alika Maunakea<\/strong>, an associate professor of epigenetics at the <a href=\"https:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\/\">John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (<abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>); <strong>May Okihiro<\/strong>, an associate professor in pediatrics at <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> and a senior pediatrician at the <span aria-label=\"Waianae\">Wai&#699;anae<\/span> Coast Comprehensive Health Center; and <strong>Carl Bonham<\/strong>, <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr> executive director and a <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa economics professor in the College of Social Sciences.<\/p>\n<p>For more, <a href=\"https:\/\/uhero.hawaii.edu\/covid-19-mandates-recommendations-for-hawai%ca%bbi-businesses-2\/\">visit <abbr>UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This work is an example of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s goal of <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-2025-strategic-plan.pdf#page=25\">Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), one of four goals identified in the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-2025-strategic-plan.pdf\">2015&#8211;25 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Less support for vaccine passports, says <abbr>UH<\/abbr> report on nearly 900 businesses, community organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[301,1411,1417,197,31,1467,1026,9,343],"class_list":["post-146826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-research","tag-economics","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-social-science","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uhero","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146826"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146848,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146826\/revisions\/146848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}