The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that a new survey from Atlanta-based law firm Fisher Phillips LLP suggests that there is an increase in the number of employers "implementing or considering" a mandate that employees be vaccinated for Covid-19, a shift that seems attributable to the surge in infections traced to the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
The survey says that back in May 2021, only four percent of employers contacted said they would consider a vaccination mandate; now, the number is 15 percent.
However, the survey also points out that it is "noteworthy that two-thirds of respondents are still opposed to mandates — although the percentage of employers falling into that camp fell to 68% in August from 83% in May."
The Business Journal writes that "there have been several factors pushing employers toward vaccine mandates over the past two months, including guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, federal court decisions and a recent opinion from the Department of Justice. The percentage of employers concerned about the legality of mandates fell to 18% in August from 32% in May. "
- KC's View:
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The fact is, businesses may be behind where many Americans are.
The Atlantic writes that "new polling shows that the large majority of vaccinated adults … support tougher measures against those who have refused COVID-19 shots.
"These new results, shared exclusively with The Atlantic by several pollsters, reveal that significant majorities of people who have been vaccinated support vaccine mandates for health workers, government employees, college students, and airline travelers—even, in some surveys, for all Americans or all private-sector workers. Most of the vaccinated respondents also say that entry to entertainment and sporting arenas should require proof of vaccination, and half say the same about restaurants.
"All of this suggests that as the Delta variant’s 'pandemic of the unvaccinated' disrupts the return to 'normal' life promised by the vaccines, a backlash may be intensifying among those who have received the shots against those who have not."
Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat wrote an excellent piece over the weekend that was entitled, "What happened this week is that patience from the vaccinated finally ran out."
Here's how he framed the issue:
"One thing has become clear in our on-again pandemic nightmare: We’re definitely not all in this together anymore.
"The latest surge in coronavirus hospitalizations among the unvaccinated — so maddening because it was so preventable — was sure to touch off a backlash of sorts, once it dawned on people that a new round of society-wide restrictions, mask-wearing and closures for everyone would be the result."
There were two choices in how to deal with the pandemic when it came to masks and vaccines, he writes - the easy way and the hard way. It looks like hot is going to be the latter: "A number of cities and states, including our own, this past week started imposing various forms of a 'get vaccinated or get fired' policy for some government workers, teachers and health workers.
"Some cities, such as San Francisco, have also started imposing sweeping 'no shots, no service' policies at all restaurants, bars, cafes and gyms.
"There’s a palpable tension rising between the roughly 60% who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the 40% who still are not — especially as it sinks in that we’re not headed back to normal now as we’d once hoped."
So maybe business actually needs to catch up.
Me, I'm not sure what people are waiting for.
Maybe a sign?
I'm reminded of this scene from The Man With Two Brains:
