COVID-19 has been a very serious consideration as both a health nightmare killing more than 550,000 Americans and has crushed American businesses in the process. Now is the time to snuff out the virus by whatever means are available. Eliminate the virus and then incent a business rebound. Attempting to do both at the same time or in reverse order would only result in prolonging the agony. The virus is not yet eradicated and people and businesses need to work together to get to the desired end - fully vaccinated population. The attached article represents a reasonable middle ground where businesses will behave appropriately to promote vaccinations, continue to promote mask wearing on the part of employees and where needed – even by customers. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/17/nation/passport-required-more-people-are-vaccinated-thorny-issue-requiring-proving-vaccinationgrows/?et_rid=637670874&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
I think that the Passport idea needs to be better thought out as to how, and tracked electronically vs. paper based, but keeping track of vaccination status is a very important variable to protect Americans from the ill-informed.
Personally, I am not a fan of rolling the dice and hoping the virus just goes away at some point. Vaccination rates need to continue to increase full throttle. Mask wearing and social distancing also need to proceed as the norm for the near term. I believe that most businesses will proceed reasonably utilizing common sense practices but should not be viewed as the vaccine police and each come up with their own policies…that could produce chaos as to different and inconsistent best practices evolving. Businesses really need some guidelines from applicable government entities for that location. This is not a right or wrong judgement as to the guidelines, rather a request for consistency. Businesses operate in different locations and can’t be faced with different operating requirements in each location.
The simpler and consistent the required best practices to be utilized by businesses, the easier to implement they would be for each business. In Amesbury, MA – we will need consistency at both the municipal and state levels, so we don’t have to serve competing masters. People by their nature respond better to consistency. When confronted with inconsistent guidelines, people tend to first – find the gaps, second – complain about them, and third – adopt the versions and components they like and ignore the rest.
And how about the ‘Conspiracy Theory’ clowns? I recently heard one on TV blaming the COVID virus on Bill Gates – and then blasted Gates for his charities, public health in developing countries, and his environmental awareness. These are the promoters of some crazy conspiracy theory against vaccinations. Unfortunately, too many Americans have shown themselves willing to listen to false propaganda – even when actually proven false – when the ‘con’ is well executed through effective messaging. The ‘con’ strategy needs to be eliminated for what it is. These anti vax promoters should take their own medicine, go off into the woods somewhere, and never be seen again.
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