Mandatory Covid-19 jabs spark debate

BERLIN. – A controversial new mandate in the US will require millions of workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19. The move by the world’s largest economy raises questions about how much a tight labor market can sustain — and about who else might follow suit.

Many countries already require certain workers, like federal or health care employees, to be vaccinated. Starting today, millions of French frontline workers face termination should they remain unvaccinated. Germany’s government, on the other hand, has been adamant that it won’t require vaccinations, a shocking idea for many in a country where even the right for employers to know if their employees are vaccinated has received major pushback.

Up to 100 million Americans could be affected by the new mandate in the US, where just over half of the total population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Vaccinations against other illnesses are a standard requirement in US public schools. Still, survey after survey has shown that as many as 50 percent of unvaccinated workers would consider walking away from a job should it require the Covid-19 jab, which people object to for a variety of reasons.

At the same time, a lot is pointing to another winter spent in the clutches of the virus. Stagnating vaccination rates, industry-disrupting outbreaks of the delta variant, and the prospect of spending more time indoors as the temperature drops are all factors playing a role in destabilising the trajectory of an economic recovery that got going over the summer.

Requiring workers be vaccinated is meant to reduce some of that risk. But companies across many sectors are already dealing with staff shortages. Despite the chance of a breakout, employers aren’t eager to let people go or see them walk off the job, particularly at a time when everyone is hiring.

Still, some experts think resistance would be negligible.

“The immediate harm of compulsory vaccination in the workplace would probably be rather small,” said Enzo Weber, a researcher at Germany’s Institute for Employment Research.

“The vast majority of people are economically and socially dependent on gainful employment. There would probably not be mass absenteeism due to refusal to vaccinate.”

“On average, the unvaccinated are the ones with lower incomes and more insecure jobs. Many of these people couldn’t afford not to get vaccinated,” he said. – DW.