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United States IT

Tech Companies Praised for 'Pandemic Leadership', Vaccine Mandates (indiatimes.com) 178

"America reported 122,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest single-day spike since February," reports Business Insider. But when it comes to anti-Covid measures like vaccine mandates, America's technology companies have been "decisive trend setters," according to the New York Times' On Tech newsletter. (Alternate URL) Last year, some high-profile tech companies were relatively early to close their corporate offices as coronavirus outbreaks started in the United States, and they continued to pay many hourly workers who couldn't do their jobs remotely. Those actions from companies including Microsoft, Salesforce, Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter probably helped save lives in the Bay Area and perhaps beyond. Now many of the same tech companies — along with schools and universities, health care institutions and some government employers in the United States — have started to announce vaccine mandates for staff, the resumption of requirements to wear masks, delayed reopenings of offices or on-site workplace vaccinations to help slow the latest wave of infections.

America's tech companies, which deserve criticism for misusing their power, also should get credit for using their power to take decisive action in response to virus risks. Those steps helped make it palatable for other organizations to follow. And in some cases, tech companies have acted more quickly in response to health threats and communicated about them more effectively than federal or local government leaders.

Disney, the world's largest entertainment company, is also requiring all salaried and nonunion hourly employees in the U.S. to be fully vaccinated, according to the Washington Post. Walmart, the nation's largest private employer at almost 1.6 million employees, announced all of its corporate staff members and regional managers would need to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 4. Though the mandate does not apply to store and warehouse staffers, which make up the bulk of the company's workforce, Walmart is offering a $150 bonus as incentive for those unvaccinated employees to get inoculated... While companies are pushing for vaccinations, they must contend with employees who are seeking exceptions for medical or religious reasons. Walmart said in a statement that while a "small percentage" of employees are unable to be vaccinated due to such reasons, those workers "must follow all social distancing standards, wear a mask while working, and receive weekly Covid-19 testing provided by Walmart...."

The news comes after corporate giants Google, Facebook and Uber announced their own vaccine mandates for employees this week. Companies such as Apple, Twitter, Lyft and the New York Times said they are delaying their return to the office due to the rising cases.

More examples from CNN:
  • BlackRock the world's largest asset manager, is currently allowing only vaccinated employees to return to the office
  • Morgan Stanley's New York office is banning all unvaccinated staff and clients from entering its headquarters.
  • Luxury department store chain Saks Fifth Avenue is requiring that all employees be vaccinated.
  • All new hires and current employees of the Washington Post will be required to demonstrate proof of full Covid-19 vaccinations.
  • As of August 2, all employees working in Lyft's offices are required to be vaccinated
  • If Uber employees want to come back to the office, they must be fully vaccinated

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Tech Companies Praised for 'Pandemic Leadership', Vaccine Mandates

Comments Filter:
  • You morons (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If you retards can't see where this is headed and how badly this is going to go off the rails ( in today's political climate ), then you deserve what's coming. You're celebrating your own demise.

    I realize I'll be one of the first up against the wall, I just hope I live long enough to see some of you piss your pants when you realize the monster you created is coming for you next.

  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday July 31, 2021 @03:52PM (#61642207)

    It's almost as if a large portion of people have been brainwashed [omaha.com] into thinking this is a joke. Others who downplayed the severity are now seeing what karma is really like [businessinsider.com].

    And truthfully, I don't care. If you choose not to get vaccinated, not wear a mask, not follow simple, basic procedures for not getting infected or infecting others, you get what you deserve. To use the meme:

    You think people who refuse vaccinations being bedridden in a hospital or dying is funny?

    Yes, I do, and I'm tired of pretending it's not. You get what you fucking deserve.

    • While I mostly agree with you, I think this story is confusing the issue. Huge corporate cancers, including tech companies, are most concerned about profits über alles and any concerns about the welfare or even survival of the employees are strictly secondary. If they can write off the deaths of employees (for any reason, including Covid-19), then they are quite willing to do so. Even worse, the current rules of the business game favor and even reward the companies that are most clever about abusing th

    • by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Saturday July 31, 2021 @05:40PM (#61642461)

      "Mandates are the opposite of freedom!" - and yet many hospitals mandate that its employees get flu shots each year.
      "The vaccine is experimental!" - except that each year the new flu vaccine is new and experimental.
      "The FDA has not given full approval!" - what missing is the logistics of storing the vaccine.
      "My favorite TV talk show dude/dudette says it's a hoax!" - well, if you get your science from someone who's job is to increase ratings versus someone who's job is to keep the community safe, you should re-evaluate your logic.

    • Studies show the vaccine hesitant will get the vaccine when their doctors tell them. What if you just don't have a doctor? Because healthcare isn't universal in America people grow to distrust healthcare. In desperation they become used to relying on pseudoscience. Things like homeopathy and colloidal silver.

      If you look into why vaccine rates are so low in the black and Latino communities it boils down to them not having much access to real healthcare and therefore to being distrustful of it

      This is o
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      the other meme is:

      "I'm all out of shits to give"

      and I constantly have that going thru my mind, each time I hear about the red staters wanting to fight about science and the pandemic.

      go ahead, die for your cause. it really is a civil war even though its not a declared one, officially. we did have a storm on the capitol to kick the war off. that will be remembered by history, I'm quite certain.

      and so, the red states are doing all they can to suppress votes from those they dont like, they are gaslighting us

  • While companies are pushing for vaccinations, they must contend with employees who are seeking exceptions for medical or religious reasons. Walmart said in a statement that while a "small percentage" of employees are unable to be vaccinated due to such reasons, those workers "must follow all social distancing standards, wear a mask while working, and receive weekly Covid-19 testing provided by Walmart...."

    In a free and open society that's really the only thing anyone can do. People are already protesting here and abroad about vaccinations being mandatory.

  • by swell ( 195815 ) <jabberwock@poetic.com> on Saturday July 31, 2021 @04:46PM (#61642327)

    These companies hire what we call 'knowledge workers'. They can work from home or almost anywhere. Why praise tech companies for doing the easy thing that costs them almost nothing? Many had record profits during this time.

    Consider a company like Tyson Foods with masses of assembly line workers in close proximity. Should they be un-praised because their employees are at risk? What about Navy submariners and cruise ship operators? What about bars & restaurants who were unable to manage safe ways of doing business? They deserve no praise?

  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday July 31, 2021 @05:20PM (#61642409)

    Orange County, where Walt Disney World is located, is now in crisis mode [newsweek.com] due to the surging number of covid cases.

    During a recent press conference, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said that over the past few days, the county "is seeing nearly 1,000 new cases" in the county daily.

    "Those are the numbers we saw at the highest peak last year. It took us approximately one month last year before we saw 1,000 cases cumulatively here within Orange County. Now we're seeing them daily," Demings said. "So a thousand a day is extraordinary. We are now in crisis mode."

    Meanwhile, Republican governor Ron DeSantis is going out of his way to demonize anything the CDC says in regards to preventing infections and deaths. At this point one must conclude DeSantis is a psychopath [psychologytoday.com] who doesn't care how many of his people have to die to prove his point.

  • Why do I care the sexual orientation of a bunch of Nazi's? If they were all lesbians, then would it be called a WomanDate?

    Everyone should be thankful for the vaccinated. If it weren't for them then the vaccinated would be getting sick and dying.

    I believe the expression used in that faery tale book (The Bible) says "As ye sow, so to shall you reap".

    If these people have made a decision, then they have made a decision. Good for them.

    Cheerio!

  • Dell isn't asking it's employees if they're vaccinated, and is still planning on return-to-site on September 7th. As someone who works there, I'm not happy about that. Vaccines aren't perfect, but they reduce the likelihood of one of my coworkers having it and spreading it to me if my vaccine fails to protect me.

    • Dell isn't asking it's employees if they're vaccinated, and is still planning on return-to-site on September 7th. As someone who works there, I'm not happy about that. Vaccines aren't perfect, but they reduce the likelihood of one of my coworkers having it and spreading it to me if my vaccine fails to protect me.

      The question you should be asking them is: "if I get infected by someone at work and then infect 10 people in my family, who end up with millions in medical bills, will you cover that cost?". If they won't cover it then they don't have the right to expect people to come work with the unvaccinated.

      • " if I get infected by someone at work "
        Dell, and their lawyers, are smart enough to know you'll be unable to prove where you got infected so your point ( and their liability ) is about zero.

        Another question you can ask is this:
        If Dell forces all their employees to be vaccinated, will you cover the costs of any medical bills and missed work for those who have those rare, serious side effects ?

        • " if I get infected by someone at work "
          Dell, and their lawyers, are smart enough to know you'll be unable to prove where you got infected so your point ( and their liability ) is about zero.

          "You pesky kids will never prove it" is hardly an argument in support of Dell being allowed to force people to work together with unvaccinated covidiots.

          Another question you can ask is this:
          If Dell forces all their employees to be vaccinated, will you cover the costs of any medical bills and missed work for those who have those rare, serious side effects ?

          Since you ask about "you" specifically, not Dell, the answer is yes in my country, where we have socialised medicine, we, the taxpayer, cover the microscopic costs of people's medical bills due to vaccine side effects. All the people have immediate support and are observed carefully. Vaccination centres have special areas where people are put for 15 minut

  • Vaccine mandates (Score:4, Interesting)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Saturday July 31, 2021 @05:53PM (#61642501)

    How can vaccine mandates be unconstitutional? I mean, I bet you if the disease had the following features:
    1. A latent phase that allowed airborne spreading for an extended period
    2. 90% fatality rate
    3. Hemoraghing death (like Ebola, for example)

    You can bet 100% the top "conservatives" will be crying for vaccine mandates. If some rogue nation such as north korea is working on making such a virus, by making laws against vaccine mandates conservatives are leaving us vulnerable were such a disease to emerge.

  • where Republican governor Greg Abbott let a few hundred of his people die in February [buzzfeednews.com] because he wanted to prove a point that Texas didn't need the federal government telling them what to do, Austin health officials have said there are only 16 staffed ICU beds available [cbsnews.com] for their region which has 2.3 million people. This is the lowest number of available beds since the pandemic began.

    "We are running out of time and our community must act now," Dr. Desmar Walkes of the Austin-Travis County Health Authority said in the city's statement. "Our ICU capacity is reaching a critical point where the level of risk to the entire community has significantly increased and not just to those who are needing treatment for COVID."

    The dire figures come as Austin is battling a spike in hospitalizations. According to data gathered by the city and Travis County, the 7-day average of COVID-19 hospitalizations has increased by over 47% over the past week. In that time, the number of COVID-19 patients in local ICU's jumped from 91 to 117, a 28% increase, and the number of patients on ventilators rose from 47 to 65, a 38% increase, the city's statement said.

  • Less than 0.004% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 experienced a breakthrough case resulting in hospitalization and less than 0.001% died from the disease [cnn.com], according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    The CDC reported 6,587 Covid-19 breakthrough cases as of July 26, including 6,239 hospitalizations and 1,263 deaths.

    Most of the breakthrough cases -- about 74% -- occurred among adults 65 or older.

    It should be noted the 1,263 deaths is less than half of the numb

    • The problem is 1,263 deaths means each one can be brought up and paraded one by one at random times. That makes it possible to make a statistically exceedingly rare event look like a common occurrence. In the same way, they choose a few "scientists" or doctors out of a million and make it look like there are a lot of anti-vaxxer doctors. It doesn't matter how miniscule the statistical percent is. If there are a few cases they can highlight that's enough for the anti-vaxxers to make people afraid of vaccines

      • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        And this is why we need a third dose. Any breakthrough rate above "undetectable" is unacceptable, because it gives anti-vaxx propagandists an opportunity and gives the people who listen to them an excuse.

        • Well, people with severe breakthrough infections may have an issue with their immune system such that multiple vaccinations may provide diminishing returns in terms of benefit. I think the only solution here is proper education of the public about thinking about statistics and science. That's the only way to immunize people so they aren't susceptible to cherry-picked evidence or false information. I mean I saw a video online where some vaccine-afraid "doctor" was explaining how the vaccine's spike being exp

          • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            Well, people with severe breakthrough infections may have an issue with their immune system such that multiple vaccinations may provide diminishing returns in terms of benefit.

            Severe breakthroughs, yes, but most people with known immune issues are wearing masks while vaccinated, limiting exposure, etc., because they know that the vaccine is of dubious utility for them.

            The double-digit percent mild breakthrough cases, however, are a somewhat unrelated problem caused by a not-quite-good-enough match. A third shot that specifically matches the delta version of the spike protein would be best, but even a booster with the existing vaccine would help a lot with reducing that number.

  • If you're not willing to get vaccinated, and don't want to wear a mask, then you can simply quit your job and go into business for yourself.

    As for me, I am fully vaccinated. If I am in a situation where I may be near children or those with compromised immune systems, I will happily wear a mask to reduce the chance of my getting them sick. However, I refuse to wear a mask to protect a bunch of ignorant hillbillies who refuse to be vaccinated.

    In fact, I WANT THEM TO GET SICK.

    I WANT them to either bankrupt t

    • " I have ZERO sympathy for them. "

      Remember those words when push comes to shove and half the country decides to go on the offensive after you deny them
      the ability to live a normal life. If you think sh*t is crazy now, just wait until an armed population truly believes your words of:

      " I WANT them to either bankrupt themselves with hospital bills or simply die in their homes. "

      The Civil War II fuse didn't get lit with all the racial bullsh*t, but this one probably will.

  • by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Saturday July 31, 2021 @10:54PM (#61642983)

    Wouldnit it make a bit more sense to simply test your employees for the presence of Covid-19 anti-bodies in their system ?

    Because, if present, it means:

    1) They currently have Covid-19
    2) They've HAD Covid-19 and survived it ( and have protection on par with or exceeding the vaccine )
    3) They've already been vaccinated

    • 2) They've HAD Covid-19 and survived it ( and have protection on par with or exceeding the vaccine )

      Recent studies show that COVID survivors have less protection against the delta variant than the vaccinated.

      It seems the vaccines provide a broader protection. My (non-expert) guess is because they focus the immune system on a portion of the spike proteins that don't mutate much, whereas "natural" immunity keys on whatever portion of the virus is most convenient.

      • Can you share those studies? This came up in another thread and I haven't seen a direct comparison anywhere. Thanks.
    • Also,

      Bear in mind that it doesn't just have to be one of these. It could be any combination of this..

  • .. in an organization where it is paramount that the leaders have operational basic brain functions and don't give a sh*t about what regular dimwitts consider staples of leadership and power or politically opportune.

    Point in case:
    I never voted for Angela Merkel, partly because I don't fully trust the moral compass of her party (the ancestor party of which also voted for Adolf Hitler back in the day), but I am really glad that right now I live in a nation that had a smart scientist as a leader for 16 years

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