POLL RESULTS: Are businesses ready to mandate vaccinations? Not so fast…

Yesterday, I asked, “Will your business mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for employees?”

Fortunately, no one went as far into the deep end as the gentleman whom Chris Cuomo interviewed on CNN 🤯. Otherwise, the poll results were about as I expected.

Here they are:

• 6.7% – We already do
• 14% – We’re either planning on it soon or strongly considering it
• 2.7% – Once the FDA approves the vaccine
• 9.4% – I don’t know
• 38.8% – Probably not
• 28.4% – Never

Unfortunately, I don’t have an earlier benchmark against which to compare these results. Anecdotally, I suspect that the “We already do” number is relatively static, but respondents have otherwise warmed up somewhat to mandatory vaccinations recently. But, I plan to repeat this poll in the coming weeks to see how attitudes on mandatory vaccinations evolve.

On a related note, the White House followed through yesterday on its promise to require every federal government employee and onsite contractor to attest to their vaccination status. Those who don’t attest must wear a mask on the job no matter their geographic location, physically distance from all other employees and visitors, comply with a weekly or twice-weekly screening testing requirement, and be subject to restrictions on official travel.

But, that’s not all.

The Federal government will reimburse small- and medium-sized businesses that offer employees paid leave to get their family members, including their kids, vaccinated — possibly at a pop-up vaccination clinic at a local school or college. Under the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the federal government previously agreed to reimburse any small- or medium-sized business that provided workers with paid time off to get themselves vaccinated.

There’s more.

The ARP provided states, territories, and localities resources that they can use to offer incentives to increase vaccination rates. So, the President wants every state, territory, and local government to use this ARP funding to provide $100 to anyone who gets vaccinated.

Hopefully, and to the dismay of this restaurant owner, these measures result in more vaccinations.