Yet Even More Tabs
On mandates and other miscellany.
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- Via the NYT: After its mandate, Tyson Foods reaches a 91 percent vaccination rate.
- Via the AP: American, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue will require their employees to be vaccinated.
The companies say that makes them government contractors who are covered by President Joe Biden’s order directing contractors to require that employees be vaccinated.
- So, mandates seem to work, but not surprisingly, via the AP: Biden vaccine mandate splits US on party lines: AP-NORC poll
About three quarters of Democrats, but only about a quarter of Republicans, approve. Roughly 6 in 10 Republicans say they disapprove. Over the course of the outbreak, Democrats and Republicans in many places have also found themselves divided over masks and other precautions.
- Via the NYT: Leader of Prestigious Yale Program Resigns, Citing Donor Pressure.
Two main thoughts from that story. One, the truly elite institutions of higher education in this country live in their own world. Two, the notion that universities are wholly captured by woke liberalism is just demonstrably not true.
- I would recommend this piece by Don Moynihan: Bullshit, Branding and CRT
(There are many notable Dan Moynihans, but this one is a Don.)
I’m almost done with American Pandemic by Nancy Bristow, about the 1918-20 flu pandemic.
The book is mostly citations from primary sources of daily life, like newspaper and magazine pieces, letters, advertising, speeches, medical and professional journals, legislative debates, etc. We get a picture of what people went through and what they thought about the flu pandemic.
It was very little different than today. mask mandates were ignored, as were orders to close theaters, pool halls, bars, churches, schools, etc. The major difference is that this didn’t happen along party lines.
There are other big differences. Treatments were almost completely ineffective. Masks were made of gauze, and offered little protection against spread (though still better than nothing). There were no major lockdowns, nor work from home (impossible at the time). And there were no real vaccines, either.
It’s sad to see what little has changed. It will be even worse by the next pandemic, even if it proves deadlier than COVID.
Yale’s credibility has taken several hits over the last few years, to the point that the school’s emblem should be a windsock. This incident and the surrendering to the woke mob who protested a pair of faculty advisers a couple of years ago. Yale’s leadership appears spineless.
What universities are full of is people who think the person down the hall has a weird opinion, and it’s good for the university for them to be here with that weird opinion.
@ptfe: Thanks for the correction.
Oh yes. I wanted to say I really liked the photo you used for this post!