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With mask mandates dropping, vaccine status will be on honor system for many businesses

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MILWAUKEE — With mask mandates across the country dropping, it is now going to be up to people to tell the truth about their vaccination status.

Attorneys say businesses have more leeway to ask employees about their vaccine status than the customers coming in.

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Husch-Blackwell labor attorney Erik Eisenmann says businesses can require employees to disclose their vaccine status without violating any employee rights. He says most businesses don’t want to ask customers.

“You don’t want to be in the business of requiring somebody to show a card when you walk in,” said Eisenmann.

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So it is really going to be up to individuals to be truthful about their vaccine status. He also says it will be tough to hold someone individually accountable, by proving they lied about their vaccine status and spreading COVID-19.

“Who’s to say that you caught it at work, or at the store, as opposed to the wedding you went to or the Brewers game that you attended,” said Eisenmann.

Business owners like Terri Regano, of the Roman Coin bar on Milwaukee’s Brady Street, say they are going to have to trust customers.

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“Yeah it’s going be the honor system because we can’t ask people to prove it,” said Regano.

The City of Milwaukee’s mask requirement for vaccinated people will end on June, 1.

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