- By publicly supporting the vaccine launch, corporate America could help vaccinate more people.
- Walmart, Disney, Uber, Lyft, NFL and others are helping with vaccine administration and education.
- The Biden government has also partnered with business groups to encourage the use of vaccines and masks.
- Visit the Business section of the Insider for more stories.
In recent weeks, Walmart has administered nearly half a million COVID-19 vaccines at its facilities across the country.
Mass vaccination sites were opened at Disneyland in California and at Yankee Stadium in New York, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell offered all 30 league stadiums to be used as mass vaccination sites.
Uber and Lyft are helping to transport people to their vaccination appointments, and Target will provide paid leave for employees who wish to obtain the vaccine.
These efforts represent a new impetus among America’s business leaders at a crucial time: their economic future depends on people getting the vaccine.
Vaccination hesitation
When the vaccine was launched last year, a predictable question arose in the United States: vaccine skepticism.
Scientific evidence shows the safety and efficacy of vaccines, but there is still a part of Americans who believe otherwise. According to the Gallup survey, the proportion of those who think vaccines are safe and important to administer has decreased by 10% in the past 20 years.
There is a segment of the United States population that is completely opposed to vaccines – a November Gallup survey found that 12% of respondents “do not trust vaccines in general”.
But there is a significant percentage who are skeptical about the coronavirus vaccine in particular, citing rushed development or safety as reasons for not wanting to get the vaccine. The same survey found that 42% of people said they would not get the coronavirus vaccine if it was free and available to them, compared with 58% who said yes.
As Insider’s Kelly McLaughlin and Yelena Dzhanova reported last year, experts warned that concerns about vaccination could delay the end of the pandemic as it could lead to gaps in collective immunity. On the other hand, taking the vaccine can greatly reduce the risk of infection: a UK study published earlier this week suggested that the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine reduces that risk by more than 70%.
All of this puts the US in a challenging position: the vaccine is safe and effective, but many Americans don’t believe it. The slow launch of the vaccine combined with this hesitation means that the United States is not achieving collective immunity very quickly. This leaves businesses like theme parks and stadiums and restaurants still closed or only partially open – and far from anything close to a recovery.
But there is hope: by loudly and publicly supporting the vaccine, corporate America could help drive the return to normal.
Getty / David Greedy
The vaccine will be a ‘game changer’ for many companies
Some CEOs are already realizing this. Walmart CEO John Furner told NBC News’ Today, the company is currently increasing to administer 13 million doses per month and that he believes that Walmart can play an important role in communities that otherwise would not have a way easy to get the vaccine.
Walmart is also offering vaccine education to its employees and publicly publicizing the benefits of the vaccine.
“We also think it is important that you know that friends, family, colleagues or others who have received the vaccine are open about this,” said Furner during an interview with Today.
Furner said that he intends to get the vaccine when his turn comes and that he encourages his employees to get it too.
Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines – another business that depends on society’s return to some sense of normalcy – said during a press conference last month that he not only supports the vaccine, but believes it should be mandatory for employees. United employees.
“The worst thing I believe I will do in my career is the letters I wrote to surviving members of the family of co-workers we lost to the coronavirus,” said Kirby, according to CNBC’s Leslie Josephs. “And then, for me, because I have confidence in the safety of the vaccine – and I recognize that it is controversial – I think the right thing to do is United Airlines, and other companies, to require the vaccines and make them mandatory.”
Since then, United has said it is evaluating a mandatory vaccination policy, but has not yet put it into effect.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced during the company’s first fiscal quarter earnings conference call earlier this month that the company had administered 100,000 doses of vaccine at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had not been open to the public since March of the year past.
The closure of the park, along with the suspension of the Disney cruise business and the closure of other parks around the world, had a serious impact on Disney business: The company said during its earnings call that the operating revenue from its experiences with parks and product businesses decreased “significantly” compared to the previous year to a loss of $ 119 million.
Chapek said that if vaccines were available to anyone who wanted them by April this year, it would be a “game changer” for Disney, giving people “the confidence they need to get back to the parks”.
Chapek stopped vehemently endorsing obtaining the vaccine, but his message was clear: the vaccine is what is needed for Disney parks to return to any degree of normality.
Ben Hasty / MediaNews Group / Reading Eagle via Getty Images
A new Biden management partnership
Still, a handful of CEOs endorsing the need for a vaccine do not amount to a unified push by American companies to vaccinate the country, or even to promote basic health and safety measures. Andy Slavitt, a White House consultant for a pandemic, told David Leonhardt of The New York Times this week that this has something to do with the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus.
Slavitt said that what companies can do now is help with messages. Masks and vaccines have become politicized, but employers may be able to break some of these barriers, as the message can be received differently from your boss and a politician. He told The Times that companies should tell employees to wear masks, avoid crowds and be vaccinated when their turn comes.
And now we can start to see more companies speaking out. The Biden administration on Friday announced a new partnership with business leaders and groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as leaders from the black, Latin and Asian business community.
The partnership aims to reach companies across the country, encouraging them to promote the value of taking the vaccine and wearing a mask. The new partnership will also encourage companies to offer bonuses or paid leave to employees for vaccination and mandatory masks and social distance in their establishments.
Although the government does not determine whether and how corporations will be involved, it will clarify how they can help – and it seems that there is a lot of interest among American companies.
“We were impressed by the reach of companies saying, ‘We want to help, we want to help, we want to help,'” Slavitt told The Times. “What a missed opportunity was the first year of this virus.”