Pandemic strategy in companies: will vaccination in the workplace be the solution?

Home office is not possible everywhere. Despite the pandemic, work continues on construction sites and in logistics centers. However, companies have a duty of care towards their employees. Private health companies also know this – and promise corona vaccinations in the office.

While Germany is making slow progress with vaccination and new infections and death rates continue to rise, more and more workers are returning to the offices. According to a representative survey by the Hans Böckler Foundation, home office use initially increased during the pandemic. In November of last year, according to the survey, despite a government appeal, only 14 percent worked from home – in April, during the first lockdown, there were almost twice as many with 27 percent.

Even if in some industries it is simply not possible to work from the home office: Companies have a duty of care towards their employees. In the United States, Amazon has therefore asked the government to give its employees preferential treatment for corona vaccinations. In a letter to the CDC, the high-ranking manager Dave Clark wrote that the colleagues from the warehouses and data centers in particular needed this protection.

When asked by ntv.de, Amazon explains that such a requirement is not an issue in this country. The company said it would have spent around $ 10 billion worldwide on Covid-19 in 2020. "In Germany alone we have ordered more than 470 million units of hand disinfectant, 21 million pairs of gloves, 19 million masks, face protection or other mouth and nose protection and 39 million packs of disinfectant wipes," says press spokesman Stephan Eichenseher ntv.de. The fact is that corona protection sometimes even goes beyond the individual country regulations. At Amazon, a minimum distance of two meters applies.

Competition for a prioritized vaccination

All of these measures are a start. However, they cannot prevent infection with the corona virus one hundred percent either. Only a vaccination can do that. Deutsche Post would therefore be prepared to vaccinate its employees at its own expense if the company had access to the vaccine. "We're not trying to buy vaccines ourselves," said CEO Frank Appel. But, "If we had a chance to get the vaccine through the government, we would vaccinate the staff at our expense," he added. However, this is currently not the case. Swiss Post is guided by government regulations and guidelines and does not want to enter into a competition to protect its 550,000 employees worldwide faster than other people.

In practice, however, that would be difficult. The current global distribution of the vaccine shows loudly Health management manager Volker Nürnberg from the auditing company BDO that the entire logistics, compliance with the cold chain and the coordination of vaccination appointments involve many risks. Companies would also have to cope with this if they wanted to vaccinate themselves. In addition, there would be potential liability risks if, for example, the medical staff to carry out the vaccination were not properly selected. Another sticking point: Should there not be enough vaccination doses, it would have to be ensured that no employees would be disadvantaged.

The general conditions in Germany and the shortage of vaccines do not allow a competition for a preferred vaccination. The health service provider Medisinn knows that too. The company, founded in 2015, is still preparing to offer vaccinations in companies. Since the beginning of this year, companies have been able to reserve a prioritized appointment for a Covid 19 vaccination in the company online. The self-proclaimed goal: coordinated and regulated processing.

"If vaccinations are also carried out in companies, this makes it easier to have access to a vaccination. Also for employees who otherwise have to arrange such appointments with shift work or childcare," says Alexander Timm, managing director of the health service provider Medisinn Plattform GmbH, based in Munich ntv.de. In addition, a Covid-19 vaccination is essential for many companies so that operations can continue to run. They want to help ensure that every employee receives a vaccination offer as quickly as possible. "Employers can thus make an important social contribution to nationwide vaccination," says Timm. Meanwhile, according to Medisinn, new companies register every day. How many and who exactly does the company not want to reveal. On the company's website, Amazon also appears under "satisfied customers" in addition to the car manufacturer Tesla and the parcel service DHL. So it wouldn't be surprising if the logistics giant had already made a reservation for a Covid 19 vaccination.

Amazon is already "a satisfied customer"

Even if it is still a long way off, the company's announced full program sounds promising: From procurement, to correct storage and logistics, to vaccination – Medisinn promises to take care of everything. The company assumes that the vaccine could be available through occupational medicine in the "next few months". "As soon as the vaccines have been approved for decentralized, broad routine vaccination in accordance with the stipulations of the National Vaccination Strategy, we as health care providers want to help achieve herd immunity in Germany more quickly," says Timm. Before that, the company's hands were tied. You are complying with the national vaccination strategy, which has already mentioned the summer of 2021 as the start of phase 2, in which family doctors and thus also company doctors are allowed to vaccinate. "We are currently planning our vaccination service comprehensively and with foresight. That is why we started the preparations at an early stage," explains Timm.

The company does not want to comment on whether the company is already in talks with manufacturers in order to be able to guarantee a vaccine supply. Nuremberg, however, cannot imagine that vaccine manufacturers will be open to such discussions this year. He sees 2022 as the time horizon. Medisinn cannot yet provide information on possible costs "due to the current situation". Just this much: the company will try to cooperate with German manufacturers.

Health care providers are having a hard time in the ongoing pandemic. At Medisinn, too, the core business was idle at the beginning of the pandemic. "Since no health measures can take place in the companies, the companies are looking for new products," says Nürnberg ntv.de. Due to the fact that it is not yet possible to foresee when Covid vaccinations will be available for companies, Nuremberg is critical of Medisinn's advance and even considers it "a PR gag that is not seriously thought out". For Nuremberg it is quite conceivable that there will be more such offers in the future. But he also points out: "Beyond vaccinations, companies should at the moment prefer to concentrate on testing their employees or further optimizing protective measures."

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