Scope and Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Workplace Vaccination Mandates During the COVID-19 Pandemic

TL;DR

This paper examines how workplace vaccination mandates varied across countries during the pandemic, finding inconsistent policies with limited evidence of effectiveness.

Contribution

The study introduces a mandate intensity index to quantify and compare vaccination policies across countries and employment sectors.

Findings

Less than one-third of 185 countries implemented workplace vaccination mandates.

Culturally aligned countries showed significant variation in mandate scope.

Government and healthcare sectors were most commonly mandated.

Abstract

The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by a patchwork of government policies in countries around the world, many of which limited civil liberties in unprecedented ways. Here, our objective was to analyze the scope and spatio-temporal patterns of workplace vaccination mandates. Using daily policy data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker for 2021–2022, we developed a simple mandate intensity index representing the number of affected employment sectors and the duration of each mandate by country. These metrics suggest a largely inconsistent pandemic response. We found that less than one-third of the 185 countries included in the dataset implemented such “no jab, no job” policies. Even among groups of culturally and politically aligned countries, such as the core Anglosphere, policies varied greatly: between one (United Kingdom) and 10 (Australia) out of 12 employment sectors had vaccination mandates. The most frequently and longest mandated sectors included government officials and healthcare workers, two broad groups with different risk profiles. We discuss these discrepancies from a critical perspective, considering the limited evidence for the mandates’ effectiveness along with their potential to cause harmful outcomes, and recommend careful cost–benefit analyses in the future.

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