A class divide on vaccinesThe tide has begun to turn on corporate vaccine mandates, with companies including Disney, Facebook, Google and Walmart recently introducing stricter requirements for employees returning to the workplace. Walmart’s vaccination mandate doesn’t cover the company’s most vulnerable employees: workers at its stores and warehouses. One fear that companies have with broad vaccine mandates is that they could drive away employees at a time when workers are already in short supply, especially in industries like retail and restaurants. So far, with the exception of health care, corporate vaccine mandates tend to cover the white-collar workers who executives want back in the office, not the lower-income workers on the front lines who are less likely to be vaccinated. Companies that adopt partial mandates that “further widen” that gap, she said, would “only go so far” in achieving what the vaccination drives are meant to accomplish.

Source: New York Times August 02, 2021 12:09 UTC