Workplace Vaccine Mandate

[Alan]

There are things employers don't want to fall on the wrong side of.

I wonder what will happen when boosters become available? The administration was keen on booster shots just a few weeks ago which makes me wonder, if boosters become available soon, will employees who were previously consider fully vaccinated immediately lose that status if they have not received the booster?

I also wonder if the mandate will actually be enforced since there seemed to be quite a bit of political blame shifting in his speech. It seemed equal parts 'do as I say to benefit everyone' and 'blame Republican governors to the benefit of my falling poll numbers', I'm not sure which was the driving force.

[Yppej]

I wonder what will happen when boosters become available? The administration was keen on booster shots just a few weeks ago which makes me wonder, if boosters become available soon, will employees who were previously consider fully vaccinated immediately lose that status if they have not received the booster?

I also wonder if the mandate will actually be enforced since there seemed to be quite a bit of political blame shifting in his speech. It seemed equal parts 'do as I say to benefit everyone' and 'blame Republican governors to the benefit of my falling poll numbers', I'm not sure which was the driving force.

Haven't boosters only been approved for Pfizer?

[ApatheticNoMore]

It's definitely problematic with boosters, as I'm not so sure how strong the scientific case is for boosters for all. Look noone is, or the Biden administration, the CDC and the FDA wouldn't be all fighting over the issue, not to mention pharma. Hardly a consensus.

The polls numbers are complete garbage anyway though. One can have their reasons for disliking Biden, but the poll numbers seem to be driven by the silliest reasons possible. Ending a forever war that was going nowhere? Wow that's how strong the war propaganda is, how much war is part of our collective identity as a country always at war. And that is more important to people than the best job market we've seen in decades? "Oh yea a forever war fought in some country I can barely find on a map, is way more important to me than the job market, CNN tells me so ..." (there may be problems with the economy but I suspect they are things like a great deal of debt built up in the rent and mortgage moratorium etc.). Of course sure having a forever pandemic as well may hurt Biden, and part of this is insufficient vaccination rates, a forever pandemic it's not exactly positive for much.

[bae]

For as long as I have been involved with emergency services, we had to either be vaccinated for all sorts of things, and tested on a regular basis to see if the vaccines had held. Or we couldn’t work.

[Yppej]

I was reading about this mandate today. Most employers are happy because they want to get back to normal, and if they had put in a mandate and others didn't then they would have lost their employees to competitors, so this levels the playing field among large employers.

However, some midsize companies will be doing layoffs to get below the 100 employee threshold.

[ApatheticNoMore]

In what world would layoffs to get below the 100 employee threshold make any sense as a business decision unless it already made sense regardless? But what if the employer is a crazy antivax Trumper? Well yea, then that's not an economically driven business decision at that point, but personal cra cra and sadly the power to implement it.

But if the worry is of employees quitting, laying off employees in response is just what: "you can't fire me, I quit!" style obstinacy, or something? Employees might quit if we had a mandate, so we'll just have to layoff employees instead? And then they pay unemployment when they lay off employees, unemployment is not paid when employees quit. And then layoffs tend to depress morale as well, so may lead to employees fleeing anyway. "Ack they are laying people off! I better jump while the jumping is good!"

[Alan]

The polls numbers are complete garbage anyway though. One can have their reasons for disliking Biden, but the poll numbers seem to be driven by the silliest reasons possible. Ending a forever war that was going nowhere? Wow that's how strong the war propaganda is, how much war is part of our collective identity as a country always at war.

It wasn't the Afghan pullout that hurt his poll numbers, huge majorities believed it was time to do so, it was the way it was done, haphazardly and chaotic. But that ship has sailed so any strategist with their salt would recommend he go after his political opponents if there's any chance of staving off an opposing party rout in the midterms. You could almost see the desperation to do so in his address the other night. That's why a part of me wonders if this whole mandate business was just a way lay blame on Republicans with no real interest in enforcing the mandate. I guess time will tell.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yea I suspect it had to be haphazard and chaotic, not that people weren't hurt by it and that sucks, but several presidents have tried to withdraw and failed (both Obama and Trump). They've watched it fall apart. Biden actually finished the job. I suspect Biden learned from Obama and his inability to end the war, he's stronger and more decisive than Obama when he actually wants to do something (oh there are many things I wish Biden wanted to do, but he seems to only have a limited number of things he actually cares about. He's limited as a person, but he got the withdrawal from Afghanistan done).

I don't know what enforcing the mandate will look like, but it's obvious to anyone you can't have part of the country overwhelmed by virus to the point where they don't have adequate hospitals, even though we have a vaccine, and expect that to be functional going ahead. That duh this is no way to run a country, an economy, a society, keep the medical system from collapsing. Nor is it necessarily good for Biden's reelection etc. nor businesses etc., well no maybe not that either. But that's mostly because it represents some form of social breakdown, which was one thing before we even had any vaccines but ....

[frugal-one]

This is employer specific. We’re not talking about religious exemptions, but medical. One person can’t get the flu shot because of being severely allergic to some ingredient. Life threatening reaction. Her doctor told her the covid vax would likely provoke the same reaction. Her doctor provided all sorts of documentation and her employer still rejected the medical exemption. Now this is bordering on weapons grade stupidity. You’re threatening to fire someone for not getting a vax that could kill them? We’re not taking about someone talking their doctor into writing an exemption letter for something mild or questionable.

Person should check with the OSHA... the federal dept that will enforcing/invoking the rules.

[frugal-one]

I wonder what will happen when boosters become available? The administration was keen on booster shots just a few weeks ago which makes me wonder, if boosters become available soon, will employees who were previously consider fully vaccinated immediately lose that status if they have not received the booster?

I also wonder if the mandate will actually be enforced since there seemed to be quite a bit of political blame shifting in his speech. It seemed equal parts 'do as I say to benefit everyone' and 'blame Republican governors to the benefit of my falling poll numbers', I'm not sure which was the driving force.

I believe the specific one Biden was referring to was FL where the gov is threatening to fire teachers and others if they wear masks or whatever.