• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, August 6, 2021

Yelp could become an informative search tool to research businesses requiring proof of vaccination.

This week the company announced a “Proof of vaccination required” and “All staff fully vaccinated” label on its review site to help consumers understand how companies operate.

Not all agree with getting vaccinated, but businesses will soon need "labels," and tread lightly on this word, in directories and on search engines like Google and Bing to identify vaccine requirements, as New York City begins to require vaccines for entry. Other states will likely follow.

United Airlines on Friday will require its 67,000 U.S. employees to be vaccinated by fall, becoming the first major airline to take this step as the Delta COVID-19 variant accelerates. With growing infection rates, mandates also continue to increase — not only for airlines and nursing home workers, but also restaurants and gyms.

California healthcare workers are required to get vaccinated by September 30, as Los Angeles considers requiring vaccine proof at restaurants, gyms and indoor sporting events.

Some might have wondered why they needed to register for the vaccine. This may be one reason why.

New York City released an app — NYC Covid Safe, and Excelsior Pass — to help people show their status. They also can use the official vaccine record site.

To help protect businesses that may experience backlash for their vaccination policies, Yelp decided to monitor pages of businesses that activate the attributes.

Throughout the pandemic, the company said it placed Unusual Activity Alerts on a Yelp page when it found an influx of activity in response to a business gaining public attention for their stance on COVID health and safety practices. This included any company requiring vaccinations for employees and/or customers.

Since January 2021, Yelp placed more than 100 Unusual Activity Alerts on Yelp pages related to these incidents, which has resulted in the removal of nearly 4,500 reviews for violating the company's content policies.

Yelp said it is also putting safeguards in place to protect companies from review bombs. Reviewing bombing has increased since the beginning of the pandemic, per Yelp.

By the way, this is straight from the CDC, whether of not you agree with getting vaccinated. "Whether an employer may require or mandate COVID-19 vaccination is a matter of state or other applicable law. If an employer requires employees to provide proof that they have received a COVID-19 vaccination from a pharmacy or their own healthcare provider, the employer cannot mandate that the employee provide any medical information as part of the proof."