It was/is legal to mandate flu vaccines and some employers did so, including some federal government jobs. However, they offered religious and medical exemptions.
HIPAA doesn't apply here. Well, it does, but not in a way that would prevent them from requiring them. HIPAA would prevent them from phoning up your doctor for verification, but does not prevent them from asking you to provide proof (or even giving them permission to phone your doctor.) HIPAA also prevents the employers from disclosing that information to others. That is, they can require you tell them your vaccination status, but they cannot pass that information along to your coworkers without your consent.
In the past at those federal government jobs I was talking about (I won't go into detail to protect my identity), the flu vaccine mandate was completely unenforced... they didn't even ask me to fill out the form as a contractor. However, this past year they decided to start enforcing it.
The form states very explicitly that the employer may not let known your vaccination status. That is, if you have an exemption, they can't let that be known to your coworkers without your consent.
What is interesting, though, is that this form (which is very professionally done, not just some crappy form some dumb manager made up), was updated this year. This year it states that if you have any exemption from the flu vaccine (medical or religious), you would be required to wear a mask. Clearly, this change was done haphazardly as there's no way to enforce that without letting known your vaccination status.
Not to mention that it makes no sense. The argument for wearing a mask with COVID is that you can supposedly have it and not have symptoms. The same really isn't true with the flu. There is not scientific justification for this... or really requiring the flu vaccine at all. So long as people aren't showing up to work sick, they're not putting others at risk by not having a flu vaccine.
The only justification I can think of is them wanting to maximize your time at work by minimizing your sick time by preventing you from getting sick. Which is fine, I guess, but the mask thing makes no sense.
It was/is legal to mandate flu vaccines and some employers did so, including some federal government jobs. However, they offered religious and medical exemptions.
HIPAA doesn't apply here. Well, it does, but not in a way that would prevent them from requiring them. HIPAA would prevent them from phoning up your doctor for verification, but does not prevent them from asking you to provide proof (or even giving them permission to phone your doctor.) HIPAA also prevents the employers from disclosing that information to others. That is, they can require you tell them your vaccination status, but they cannot pass that information along to your coworkers without your consent.
In the past at those federal government jobs I was talking about (I won't go into detail to protect my identity), the flu vaccine mandate was completely unenforced... they didn't even ask me to fill out the form as a contractor. However, this past year they decided to start enforcing it.
The form states very explicitly that the employer may not let known your vaccination status. That is, if you have an exemption, they can't let that be known to your coworkers without your consent.
What is interesting, though, is that this form (which is very professionally done, not just some crappy form some dumb manager made up), was updated this year. This year it states that if you have any exemption from the flu vaccine (medical or religious), you would be required to wear a mask. Clearly, this change was done haphazardly as there's no way to enforce that without letting known your vaccination status.
Not to mention that it makes no sense. The argument for wearing a mask with COVID is that you can supposedly have it and not have symptoms. The same really isn't true with the flu. There is not scientific justification for this... or really requiring the flu vaccine at all. So long as people aren't showing up to work sick, they're not putting others at risk by not having a flu vaccine.
The only justification I can think of is them wanting to maximize your time at work by minimizing your sick time by preventing you from getting sick. Which is fine, I guess, but the mask thing makes no sense.