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For executives planning to reopen offices in the coming months, Thursday was a doozy of a news day: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unexpectedly issued new mask rules, and Delta became the first major U.S. company to require the coronavirus vaccine for new employees.
The Covid-19 precautions companies must take to keep their workers safe can seem like a moving target.
Here’s what we do know: Generally, employers are allowed to require employees to be vaccinated. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued guidance in December stating that vaccine mandates are legal. But this is complicated by proposed legislation in a number of states that would restrict companies’ abilities to set such requirements, and it may be further complicated by the fact that all the vaccines only have conditional approval for emergency use. Pfizer and BioNTech recently applied for full approval for their vaccine, but the process is likely to take months.
Hackers take down a major fuel pipeline
One of the U.S.’s biggest pipeline operators, Colonial Pipeline, disclosed late last week that it was forced to shut down after it was hit by ransomware. It’s a sobering reminder that cybercrime is one of the most serious threats that companies face.
Colonial acknowledged that its corporate computer network had been hit, crippling the company that supplies 45 percent of the East Coast’s fuel. (A criminal gang known as DarkSide was identified as the perpetrator.) While the shutdown, now in its third day, hasn’t yet had a major impact on the markets for gasoline, diesel or jet fuel, analysts warned prolonged downtime could lead to higher gas prices as demand rises when the economy fully reopens. Colonial declined to say when it would restart operations.