California publicizes new vaccination laws for state workers which can be more likely to unfold nationwide

There are only two possible solutions to the new surge: either the vast majority of Americans need to get vaccinated – and quickly – or sweeping closings need to happen again to prevent regional hospitals from being overwhelmed with new patients. (A third solution, favored by Conservative Republicans – where we allow the pandemic to run its course, with each citizen choosing whether or not to infect their surroundings and accepting widespread deaths as a necessary price – is too malicious to to accept them Seriously.)

In California today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state’s new attempt to tackle the crisis: each of the state’s more than a quarter of a million government employees must make a choice. Government officials must either provide proof of vaccination or have weekly tests for COVID-19 infection.

You don’t need to be vaccinated. But if you want to keep your job, you have to constantly prove that you are not a threat to your co-workers.

That trade-off between needing vaccinations or having proof of your COVID-19 negative status is likely to spread as the status quo will be unsustainable. If the pandemic spreads almost completely among the unvaccinated, the unvaccinated will either need to be banned (again) or other safety measures must be followed that can prevent infection. Also in California, a group of several hundred San Francisco bar owners are announcing that customers wishing to enter their store will be required to present either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. This mandate could be extended to other municipal companies and the city itself is considering similar steps.

Within the federal government, the Department of Veterans Affairs requires 115,000 frontline health workers to be vaccinated to keep patients safe.

These new vaccination regulations don’t happen in a vacuum. Vaccination rates among public sector workers remain deplorable in some regions and are contributing to the spread of the pandemic. Both governments and private companies are fed up with a spike that didn’t have to happen, leading to more blunt warnings to workers than in the past. The NFL has warned that if unvaccinated players result in an outbreak that requires a game to be canceled, the team with the outbreak will be pinned as the loser of the game. That puts the safety burden on the deliberately unvaccinated: you don’t have to get a free vaccine that can save your life or the life of someone around you, but if you take the risk and your decision gets your entire team out of a playoff berth, then it will be that between you, the rest of your team, and each of your irritated fans.

The United States is unlikely to return to widespread public closings, at least not unless the winter surge threatens to become even more catastrophic than the current one. There is no stomach for it; The places where COVID-19 is now rapidly spreading are the places where public or government disregard of security measures initially led to lax measures. That means that in the next phase of the pandemic, there may be restrictions on where the unvaccinated can visit or work, even if vaccinated Americans face far fewer restrictions.

Yes. Vaccine “passports” may be the government and business preferred way out of this new mess. It didn’t have to happen, but it was either a widespread vaccination or … that.