HIPAA doesn’t apply to conversations you might have on the street, said Margaret Riley, a UVA professor of law and a legal advisor for the school’s Health Sciences Institutional Review Board. “I can ask you on the street what your vaccine status is. I can ask you in my business what your vaccine status is. If I’m not your supervisor, that’s not a violation because I have no impact on you,” Riley said. “On the other hand, you have no obligation to answer me.”