GMA/YahooNews (“After months of vaccine incentives, nation changes course“):
Life may be about to get tougher for the unvaccinated — and it’s not only because of their significantly increased risk of getting COVID-19 and becoming very sick.
A rising chorus of states, cities and private sector titans have implemented new vaccine requirements for their employees and patrons. It marks a new, less negotiable phase in the fight against the coronavirus, after months of cajoling and material goodies leading the vaccination campaign.
The new incentives aren’t financial. They draw motivation from immediate and tangible fears: of losing time to go get tested, losing a job, losing money or missing out on social events, as well as the ever more apparent pain of the pandemic hitting home through loss of life and loved ones. More than 97% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the country are unvaccinated, according to the White House COVID-19 Task Force.
Now, after months of vaccine rates tapering off, vaccination rates are heading back up with the recent surge of serious illness. On Thursday alone, the U.S. saw its highest vaccination numbers in over a month — 585,000 new vaccinations in a single day, the White House COVID-19 data director announced. Some of the most dramatic upticks in recent vaccinations have been in states with the highest surges in new cases and hospitalizations and some of the lowest vaccination rates.
“Watching more people dying in the ICU, kids getting sick? Yes, that motivates,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics and the founding head of New York University School of Medicine’s medical ethics division. “Free beer, fishing license, free marijuana, college tuition didn’t move many people to get vaccinated.”
Unvaccinated Americans must now weigh their own personal risk-benefit ratio: Take the vaccine or face restrictions.
“The carrots do not work much,” Caplan said. “Now, we’re seeing more pressure coming from the other side.”
hat pressure is coming in the form of federal, state and local vaccine requirements.
Requirements that government employees get vaccinated or face regular testing, social distancing and masks were accompanied by a slew of major companies like Google, Facebook, Tyson Foods and Disney, which is the parent company of ABC News, now requiring the vaccine for their employees.
“I think we’ve taken significant steps to make it difficult to come back to work, or more difficult to come back to work, if you’re not vaccinated,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said.
The Biden administration has made clear there will be no federal mandate; but its recent lean-in to vaccine requirements marks a shift in tone, going from from removing barriers to getting the vaccine to making it harder to move about “normal” life for those who choose not to get it.
“There’s a bit of a hassle factor that plays into whether or not people are willing to get an exemption,” Julie Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told ABC. “And if it’s too difficult or more challenging, people might opt just to get vaccinated.”
As the NFL season gets into gear, the league informed clubs that it would not extend the season to accommodate a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players that leads to a game cancellation, the NFL Network reported, a stark turn from the season prior, when the league flexed the schedule to avoid missed games amid outbreaks. Additionally, players on both teams would forfeit pay for the lost contest, and the team responsible for the cancellation brought on by unvaccinated players would cover the financial losses and face potential disciplinary action.
Are the players happy? Not so much.
Jimmy Graham, the Chicago Bears starting tight end, took to social media Thursday to claim he felt he was “basically forced” into receiving a Covid-19 vaccine shot and express frustration towards proposed revisions to the league’s coronavirus protocols, including a return to daily testing for all players.
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The NFL Players Association’s president, JC Tretter, criticized the league last week for allowing teams to force their players to wear colored wristbands to differentiate between those who have received a vaccine and those who haven’t. Tretter argued that color-coded wristbands, which he characterized as a “scarlet marking,” were a result of the NFL’s desire to “put a policy in place to try to shame unvaccinated players publicly about their status and make that known to everyone on the field.”
Cole Beasley, a receiver for the Buffalo Bills, said last week that information related to the virus and the vaccine was “being withheld from players in order for a player to be swayed in a direction he may not be comfortable with.” Beasley tweeted last month he would not “take meds for a leg that isn’t broken,” declaring, “I may die of covid, but I’d rather die actually living.”
Do I care? Not so much. And it’s working: 87.9% of players had at least one shot as of July 29; one suspects the number is considerably higher by now.
CNN is going the direct route: Get vaxxed or get axed.
CNN has fired three employees who violated company policy by coming to work unvaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
CNN chief Jeff Zucker told staff members of the firing in a memo sent Thursday that reminded them that vaccines were mandatory if they report to the office or out in the field where they come into contact with other employees.
“Let me be clear — we have a zero tolerance policy on this,” wrote Zucker, chairman of news and sports for WarnerMedia.
I’m guessing they’ll be at 100% any day now.
The Biden administration has been steadily ratcheting up pressure and appears ready to do more. WaPo (“Biden administration considers withholding funds and other measures to spur vaccinations“):
The Biden administration is considering using federal regulatory powers and the threat of withholding federal funds from institutions to push more Americans to get vaccinated — a huge potential shift in the fight against the virus and a far more muscular approach to getting shots into arms, according to four people familiar with the deliberations.
The effort could apply to institutions as varied as long-term-care facilities, cruise ships and universities, potentially impacting millions of Americans, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.
The conversations are in the early phases and no firm decisions have been made, the people said. One outside lawyer in touch with the Biden administration on the issue is recommending that the president use federal powers sparingly.
There is a particular focus in the discussions on whether restrictions on Medicare dollars or other federal funds could be used to persuade nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities to require employees to be vaccinated, according to one of the people familiar with the talks.
If the Biden administration goes forward with the plans, it would amount to a dramatic escalation in the effort to vaccinate the roughly 90 million Americans who are eligible for shots but who have refused or have been unable to get them.
[…]
There is a particular focus in the discussions on whether restrictions on Medicare dollars or other federal funds could be used to persuade nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities to require employees to be vaccinated, according to one of the people familiar with the talks.
If the Biden administration goes forward with the plans, it would amount to a dramatic escalation in the effort to vaccinate the roughly 90 million Americans who are eligible for shots but who have refused or have been unable to get them.
Given the severity of the threat, this is too tepid for my tastes. I get why they’re reluctant to be bolder but the 2022 midterms are 15 months away and every day of inaction means another few hundred dead. Granted, they’re mostly unvaccinated. But the risks of permanent disability to vulnerable populations who can’t get the vaccines outweighs any countervailing “freedom” arguments.
