(David Grunfeld / The Advocate via AP)
PHOENIX – Arizona private companies may require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but they must allow reasonable religious and medical exemptions under state and federal law, wrote State Attorney General Mark Brnovich , in a legal opinion.
And they can also impose vaccine requirements on employers, as long as they provide reasonable accommodation to clients who are unable to get a vaccine because of a disability or do not discriminate against someone who does not get it for religious reasons. Republican wrote in opinion Friday.
Public schools and universities and local and state government agencies are different because of laws enacted this year by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by Gov. Doug Ducey.
Employees and students are not allowed to be required to be vaccinated once the new laws go into effect on Sept. 29. But private schools can, if they allow exemptions for religious or health reasons.
Ducey last week issued an executive order banning state and local governments from requiring vaccines, based on an existing law that says health agencies cannot force people to be treated if they meet health or quarantine standards. An infraction carries criminal penalties.
Brnovich, who is running in the 2022 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Mark Kelly, also looked at whether airlines can demand vaccination from patrons. The answer is no.
Brnovich wrote that airlines are covered by federal laws and regulations and are currently not allowed to deny service unless a person is really ill, a risk to other customers, and unable to obtain a medical certificate explaining preventive measures.
“It will be difficult for a carrier to establish that vaccination testing is now a mandatory preventive measure for COVID-19 when airline service has continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic with masking and ventilation as to major preventive measures, ”the opinion said.
In a statement and summary that accompanied legal opinion, Brnovich argued that the coronavirus is a threat to constitutional rights.
“We need to keep the Constitution closed in times of crisis because that’s when our rights are most at risk,” Brnovich’s statement said. “In all medical and health care decisions, Americans have the right to try and the right not to try; we can’t have one without the other ”.
The attorney general also gave some political coverage to parts of the opinion, according to which private companies may require vaccines in many cases, a position vocally opposed by some in their own party.
“Americans should be allowed to choose which risks they feel comfortable and which they don’t,” Brnovich wrote. “The law does not always reflect good public policy and our role with respect to the Attorney General’s opinion is to say what the law is and not what it should be.”
Opinion comes as Arizona health officials and much of the nation face a resurgence of COVID-19 caused by the new delta variant. Hospitals, many medical professionals, and some politicians are practically begging to be vaccinated, as in most cases the vaccine prevents serious infections.
State health officials reported more than 3,000 new cases of coronavirus and three additional deaths on Sunday as the rise of the delta variant continued during the sixth week.
The Arizona Department of Health Services reported 3,307 new infections, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 986,082. The total number of people who have died in the state due to COVID-19 is now 18,600.
On Saturday, the health department reported 3,195 news cases and 36 additional deaths.
The number of new infections each day had dropped from 1,000 for several months in the spring and early summer until the new variant began hitting Arizona in July. The seven-day average of new daily cases in the state has risen in the past two weeks, from 2,311 new cases a day on August 6 to 2,452 on August 20.
This has led to a slightly larger number of people deciding to take a COVID-19 vaccine in recent weeks.
More than half of the Arizona population has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Hospitalizations due to the virus have reached the highest number since mid-February.
More than 1,800 people are hospitalized with the virus, 462 of them in intensive care.