Goldman Sachs has become the latest Wall Street company to expand its COVID-19 protocols and requires vaccination of anyone entering its U.S. offices, according to an internal note obtained by Reuters and confirmed by a spokesman.
The banking giant will also require masking in the common areas of its offices, regardless of vaccination status, starting Aug. 25, according to the note. Fully vaccinated staff will also receive weekly COVID-19 testing beginning September 7th.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the PCC (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
With the move, Goldman joins other Wall Street banks that have begun enforcing stricter mask and vaccine requirements. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are now demanding that staff entering their New York premises be inoculated against COVID-19, while Bank of America will allow only vaccinated workers to return to work in the office in September.
The appetite for vaccine mandates appears to be growing among those in the New York financial sector.
“Most Wall Street employees want vaccine warrants for anyone returning to the office,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of Partnership for New York, citing polls.
Goldman’s announcement comes a day after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which was previously authorized for emergency use only.
Following the FDA decision, President Joe Biden called on private sector entities such as businesses and nonprofits, as well as state and local authorities, to increase the imposition of vaccination requirements.
“If you’re a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader, waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, now I’m asking you to do it, they require it,” Biden told the August. 23 briefing.
The lack of full FDA approval was widely reported as a factor preventing some companies from imposing vaccine warrants in the face of objections from some workers and unions. The FDA announcement, driven by the Biden administration’s call for the private sector to be included, will likely play into companies ’decisions to push for vaccine requirements.
The same day the FDA approved the firing of Pfizer, Disney reached an agreement with its unions to require vaccination of all workers at its Orlando, Florida theme park. Under the agreement, workers will be required to submit vaccination tests before Oct. 22 to maintain their job, with the possibility of exclusion for religious or medical reasons, according to the Disney Information Station.
Some legal experts have argued that full approval of the FDA vaccine will make it nearly impossible for employees to successfully challenge the company’s mandates in court.
The language of the US Emergency Authorization Act states that recipients must be informed of the benefits and risks of the vaccine and given the option to accept it or deny it.
Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC-Hastings Law, told Reuters that the language of U.S. law generates uncertainty about mandates.
“With full approval, this is eliminated,” Reiss told the dam.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Tom Ozimek has extensive training in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education. The best writing advice you’ve ever heard is from Roy Peter Clark: “Hit your target” and “leave the best for last”.