Businesses Like The NFL Are Embracing Vaccine Mandates. It’s Not a Moment Too Soon.

Public persuasion campaigns can’t move the needle as much as the private sector requiring employees to be vaccinated

James Surowiecki
GEN
Published in
6 min readJul 24, 2021

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JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images

Over the past few weeks, the number of Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths has risen sharply in the United States, particularly in states with low vaccination rates. While the vaccines do not offer perfect protection against being infected with Covid , they significantly reduce your chances of getting infected and, more important, they shrink your chances of being hospitalized, let alone dying, from Covid to almost nothing. That’s why, in the U.S., more than 90% — and perhaps as many as 99% — of Covid deaths over the past few months have been among unvaccinated people.

Despite this, a surprisingly large percentage of American adults are still unvaccinated. There are lots of reasons why. Access is still a significant issue for many Americans — workers who don’t have paid sick leave often feel they can’t afford to get vaccinated and run the risk of feeling crappy for a couple of days because of side effects. Lack of information is also a factor — not everyone understands that the vaccines are free, and that you don’t need insurance to get one. The fact that none of the vaccines has…

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James Surowiecki
GEN
Writer for

I’m the author of The Wisdom of Crowds. I’ve been a business columnist for Slate and The New Yorker and written for a wide range of other publications.