Companies are adopting COVID vaccine mandates for employees. So why aren't all vaccine makers?

Editor’s note: After publication of this article, Moderna announced Aug. 20 it would require COVID-19 vaccination for all its workers in the United States, effective Oct. 1.

Only two of the three makers of COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the U.S. require their own employees to get the shot or be tested weekly.

Moderna is the outlier. The Cambridge, Massachusetts, company, which supplies 41% of the nation's vaccine, has no vaccination mandate.

"We have safety and testing protocols in place, but no such requirement at this time," Moderna spokesperson Ray Jordan said in an email.

Johnson & Johnson announced Monday that it would require all its employees and contractors be vaccinated against COVID-19.

J&J's mandate will take effect on Oct. 4, the company said in a statement. The company supplies 5% of the nation's COVID-19 vaccines.

"As COVID-19 continues to devastate families and cause untold hardship, the data shows getting vaccinated is critical to helping end the pandemic," the company said.

The mandate applies to all J&J employees and contractors in the United States. People who have medical conditions or other reasons to not be vaccinated will be able to seek accommodations.

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Pfizer, which supplies 54% of COVID-19 vaccines in the USA with its German collaborator BioNTech, requires all its U.S.-based employees and contractors to get vaccinated or be tested weekly for the coronavirus.

"This is to best protect the health and safety of our colleagues and the communities we serve," a statement from the company said.

Outside the U.S., the company is "strongly encouraging all colleagues who are able to do so in their countries get vaccinated."

Hundreds of U.S. companies now make vaccination against COVID-19 a requirement of employment. Disney, Google, Netflix, Tyson Foods and Microsoft require employee vaccination or regular testing. Walmart, Uber and Lyft are imposing the requirement on white-collar office workers but not drivers or front-line employees.

Moderna is a relatively small company, with just 1,500 employees. That could mean it's afraid of giving any of them cause to leave, said Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. He has consulted with numerous businesses and schools about COVID-19 vaccine mandates, not including Moderna.

"The basic, underlying reason is fear," he said of companies that have told him they have concerns about imposing a mandate. "They're afraid of losing employees they can't replace at a time like this."

Pfizer has more than 79,000 employees internationally, and J&J has about 130,000 globally.

One objection raised by employees at some companies is that COVID-19 vaccines were issued under an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration rather than full approval.

Last month, however, the Department of Justice said employers and public entities could legally require COVID-19 vaccines under emergency authorization.

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Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a COVID-19 vaccine mandate at Indiana University, clearing the way for school officials to require students and faculty members to be vaccinated.

Not requiring employees at a company making COVID-19 vaccine to be vaccinated against the disease seems counterintuitive, several experts said.

Vivian Riefberg, a professor of practice at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, said a vaccine mandate from vaccine makers could show faith in their product.

"It could send a signal to other companies that could be valuable," she said.

But not everyone thinks vaccine mandates a good idea.

Retsef Levi, an expert in risk management at the MIT Sloan School of Management said he sees mandates as problematic scientifically, ethically and practically.

Scientifically, he said, that vaccination – while a good idea for individuals to dramatically reduce their chances of hospitalization or death – won't guarantee an employee can't catch COVID-19. Breakthrough infections, while rare, can happen to people who have been vaccinated.

Telling people they can't come to work without being vaccinated may give them a false sense of security, said Levi, who is vaccinated and considers himself pro-vaccine.

Ethically, he said companies shouldn't force employees to get vaccinated (or penalize ones who don't by requiring regular testing) because people should have freedom of choice for medical treatments.

And practically, mandates often backfire, he said, making people who dowant to get vaccinated even more reluctant.

All employees will have to get used to the idea, Levi said, that no one will be perfectly protected against COVID-19, even if everyone else in the office is vaccinated.

"It's not zero risk," he said.

Karen Weintraub contributed to this report.

Contact Elizabeth Weise at eweise@usatoday.com and Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pfizer and J&J mandate employee COVID vaccines, tests; Moderna doesn't