The resurgence of the COVID pox and its toll on Americans and their economy is driving business and organization leaders to tears.
Just when they thought they had some clear air and the economy is rebounding sharply, the surges in D variant infections are forcing them to reconsider mandatory masks in their workplaces and even mandatory vaccinations, which no one likes. Some have already made decisions to mandate on both levels.
It is so sad because it was so preventable. The know-nothings, the half of the population who have gone unvaccinated, are in charge. They are enabling the renewed spread of the COVID disease. Hospitals in hot spots are filling up again. More people are dying. Many people are using their common sense to avoid crowds where unvaccinated spreaders are mingling with the vaccinated. That means lower business volume.
Unknowingly, the anti-vaxxers are flirting with another recession.
Businesses that survived the COVID recession of 2020 and early 2021, often thanks to generous and necessary federal subsidies, are surveying the business environment to decide whether they need go from rehiring people to cutting back. They are back in the question.
The best antidote clearly is mandated vaccinations to get to a much higher percentage of immune Americans, but political leaders are stymied by the dim bulbs in their ranks. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin leads the dim-bulb parade. (Let’s hope he doesn’t run again, like he promised he wouldn’t. He is a dangerous ideologue.)
Many small and medium businesses are so short of workers that they can’t consider mandated shots for fear of losing experienced employees. But larger employers that can attract large pools of candidates for open jobs can and should lead the way on mandate shots. In absence of government leadership – President Biden and Gov. Evers have tried the soft sell to little avail – big business needs to enter the breach to save the country from another wave of COVID and another recession.
An increasing number of large corporations have already stepped up to mandate shots. Some leading universities have also taken the lead. Good on them. They have rightly concluded that in times of crisis, community rights trump individual rights. Please patronize those stand-up companies
A return to masking is a stop-gap measure. It helps, but we are fighting a war against a powerful enemy. We need to use our most powerful weapon: vaccinations.
Please, for their own good, fight back against the anti-science voices and their bogus arguments against the proven, miraculous effectiveness of COVID vaccines.
And vote against political leaders who say and do otherwise.
