WASHINGTON — Many businesses would be required by the federal government to have all their workers vaccinated for COVID-19 under a mandate that is still under review by the White House.
Federal employees have to be vaccinated by late November and government contractors by early December. While the rules regarding private sector businesses with at least 100 workers are being looked over, many businesses have already rolled out company-wide vaccine mandates on their own.
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that as a result of these mandates, 5-percent of America’s unvaccinated workers have quit their jobs rather than get the shot. Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) anticipates that it will only go up from there if the White House continues to pursue vaccine mandates on businesses.
“That is government in overdrive, government gone wild,” Braun said in a Senate hearing. “It is a complete lack of respect for our productive side of our economy.”
Some businesses, including hospitals, are threatening to fire employees who don’t get the shot.
Braun has never said if he himself is vaccinated or not, but has encouraged people to get the shot. He believes that many lawmakers are pushing ahead with support of vaccine mandates without ever having owned a business themselves.
Braun adds that businesses should not be burdened with the possibility of people quitting their jobs over vaccine mandates as they are in the process of trying to bring workers back after shutting down during the height of the pandemic.
“As we keep hitting small businesses in this fashion with what they’ve just come through, unless you are purposefully, intentionally, trying to put companies out of business, it’s not the time to do it,” Braun said.
The senator from Indiana has signed on to a bill being introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that would protect essential workers from being fired for not getting a COVID vaccine.
