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(Reuters) – Virginia has passed a law that makes it easier for some healthcare workers who contract COVID-19 to recover medical bills or lose wages.
But there is a catch: The law excludes healthcare workers who are offered a vaccine at work and refuse it.
The bill, retroactive to March 12, 2020, was promulgated by Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday evening, according to an aide to Chris Hurst, a member of the state House of Delegates who drafted the bill.
The new law assumes that the death or disability of COVID-19 for healthcare workers who have been in contact with a known positive COVID patient is an occupational risk, allowing them to collect accident insurance benefits from the job.
The bill potentially allows hundreds of workers to claim benefits that were previously denied to them due to the difficulty of proving where a worker was infected with COVID-19.
If, however, the employer offered a vaccine and a worker refused, the presumption does not apply. The bill contains an exception for people with a health problem that puts them at risk of getting vaccinated.
Almost a third of Americans have received at least one injection to date. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/3tUM8ta)
Similar bills have been introduced in Illinois, Indiana and Maryland as states test ways to encourage vaccines without triggering a backlash against government mandates.
“It’s that cowardly way of trying to implement a mandate through the backdoor that you know you probably couldn’t get out of it explicitly through the body politic,” said Mike Duff, professor at the ‘University of Wyoming College of Law.
Critics fear that there may be a benefit to vaccines that have only been approved in emergencies.
Dr Liz Mumper, a pediatrician in Virginia, said, “Whenever there is a risk to an individual, there has to be a choice.”
In the United States, the workers’ compensation system largely protects employers from lawsuits, while allowing workers to collect compensation for injuries without having to prove fault or negligence. The system was designed for factory accidents and not for airborne illnesses.
According to the Virginia Nurses Association, only 1% of healthcare workers in Virginia have received COVID-19 workers compensation benefits.
Some legal experts and supporters of the Virginia bill say it is legal for states to offer incentives to take the vaccine and it will make the workplace safer.
“If you choose not to get the vaccine, you have to take some level of personal risk,” Hurst said in an interview.
Workers’ compensation lawyers said the vaccine requirement was similar to safety protocols such as hard hats, which must be followed in order for an injured worker to claim benefits.
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