Once eligible for booster doses, popular US company started mandating workers to get their third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine

Since the official authorization of the Covid-19 booster dose, more than 41 million Americans received their third (or second J&J dose) dose of the vaccine, the latest data provided by the White House confirms.

The most concerning thing lately is the Omicron variant, a variant that is believed to have more than 30 mutations, much more compared to all the previous variants of the Covid-19 virus. This high number of mutations means that the virus has the power to easily evade immunity and increase transmissibility and this applies to both vaccination immunity and natural immunity in recovered Covid-19 patients.

With the Omicron variant in place, health officials and experts believe that the number administrated booster doses will increase in the upcoming weeks since many people will decide to improve their immunity as we approach the holiday season when indoor family gatherings will be more frequent.

Although not much is known about the new Omicron variant, Dr. Anthony Fauci in multiple occasions in the last couple of days said he believes that the best thing one can do right now is to get the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. That was also confirmed by Pfizer’s studies claiming booster dose of their vaccine by far improves immunity against the Omicron variant.

We all remember last year’s winter scenario when the numbers literally exploded after the holidays and last year’s winter wave remains the strongest we have seen since the start of the pandemic. That’s why many health experts believe that Omicron comes in very sensitive period, a period which might turn into total disaster prolonging the economic crisis in the country.

In addition to the winter months and the holiday season, another major concern for health experts is the fact that many companies already returned to offices. Majority of these companies mandated their workers to get vaccinated, something that has been a hot topic in the last couple of months.

The number of companies mandating their workers to get fully vaccinated is huge, but we now officially have the first ever company mandating their workers to get the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccines once eligible.

According to Footwear News, TJX Companies, the parent company of Marshalls and TJ Maxx, is mandating that all of its eligible office employees obtain a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine to return to work. The Framingham, Mass.-based company previously mandated that all U.S. home and regional office associates to be fully vaccinated by November 1.

As of now, the booster dose vaccine mandate only applies to TJX Companies office workers, while stores and distribution centers employees will be excluded from the mandate, at least for now. The most recent decision was confirmed by the company recently and this is their statement:

“We will require booster shots for vaccinated U.S. Office Associates as part of our U.S. Office vaccine mandate once eligible (i.e., two months following a one-dose vaccination (Johnson & Johnson) or six months following the last shot of two-dose vaccination (Moderna/Pfizer),” a TJX spokesperson told FN in a statement.

“Those who received vaccinations after June 1, 2021 will generally have up to eight months following the date of their final two-dose vaccine and four months following the date of their one-dose vaccine. This booster requirement applies to our U.S. offices associates only, and not our store or distribution center associates.”

Although this is the very first case of booster dose vaccine mandate, it’s easy to assume that many companies will slowly start to follow the same path in near future if the mandate delivers the wanted results for TJX Companies.