Full disclosure: I had my second COVID-19 shot about six weeks ago and I’m cautiously beginning to enjoy an easing of the restrictions we’ve all endured over the past year or so.

Having said that, I respect other people’s decisions not to have the vaccine. In many cases they may have medical reasons not to have a shot, may be concerned about side effects or may simply be waiting until the various vaccines are fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before offering up their arms to the needle.

Others are suspicious of the motives behind the push and still others have individual reasons why they won’t participate. As a result, we are likely far from the point where nearly everybody is vaccinated against COVID-19, and we will have to make adjustments to reflect that reality.

Employers, too, are having to make changes as a significant number of workers remain unprotected. When the vaccines became available late last year, many employers indicated that they would encourage workers to have a shot rather than mandate vaccination as a condition of returning to the workplace.

On such a sensitive and potentially contentious issue it made sense to take a soft approach, but some employers are now having to make hard decisions about whether to compel some workers to be vaccinated. While remote staff are still usually allowed to make their own choices, workers in some industries, especially those in the health care sector, may be compromising the safety of others if they are not protected themselves.

As we report on page 4, some hospitals are informing workers that they must be inoculated against COVID-19 to continue working, and some employees are choosing to give up their jobs rather than comply. 

If employers do choose the mandatory route, they must be careful not to violate privacy rights and respond appropriately if staff suffer side effects from a shot and need time off. But given worries over patient and customer safety and concerns over potential liability, it was perhaps inevitable that some employers opted to take a harder line.

That does not mean, however, that employers should give up all the incentive carrots and just wield the termination stick as they strive to have more workers protected from the virus.

Some companies are already offering paid time off and cash incentives to encourage workers to go get a shot, but there’s potential to be even more creative. In the public sphere, for example, Ohio’s “Vax-a-Million” drawing for the chance of winning $1 million or a college scholarship if they got vaccinated led to a rush of people rolling up their sleeves.

While some may view the stunt as extreme, one thing we’ve all learned is that innovative thinking is critical to suppressing the pandemic.