As the global economy is recovering from the coronavirus crisis that has been putting growth on hold, a wide range of vaccinations to create immunity should be one of the key driving forces to a success in overcoming the situation and bringing the economy back on track.
Countries around the world have issued or are planning to issue a vaccine mandate to help protect their people against the delta or omicron variants.
Austria, Germany, and Indonesia are among countries that implemented or are planning to implement the obligatory on all adults. Meanwhile, Canada, Denmark, USA, France and Italy are among countries that enforced government employees, public and private sector workers to get vaccinated despite protests against the mandate saying it violates human rights and freedom. Still, scientific reports show that vaccination can help reduce the chance of hospitalizations and deaths.
Canada’s second most populous province, Quebec, is planning to force adults who are eligible but refusing to get a Covid-19 vaccine to pay a “health contribution” in an amount that would not be less than C$100 ($79.50) as unvaccinated people put a financial burden on others.
According to a survey conducted for Fortune by the polling firm Ipsos, among about 2,000 people in France and Italy, a fair number of unvaccinated people are reportedly okay with the government tightening the measure by enforcing the vaccine mandate.
The Biden administration has been trying to get a vaccine mandate effective in the United States of America, but the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration from enforcing vaccine-mandate or negative-test requirements for large private companies with 100 or more employees. Still, the court allowed a vaccine mandate to be in effect for medical facilities that take medicare or medicaid payments.
Citigroup was the first institution in Wall Street to strictly enforce a vaccine mandate on its U.S. employees by announcing a termination of non compliant workers by the end of this month.
Last October, the bank disclosed an announcement saying that employees must be fully vaccinated as a condition of employment and required proof of vaccination by January 14, 2022. At the time, just like what the Biden Administration once did but doubled in cash, the bank would hand out $200 for employees who comply with the conditions by December 8, 2020.
Sara Wechter, Citi’s Head of Human Resources, posted on Linkedin in late October saying that after a careful consideration and analysis, the group will require U.S.-based employees to be fully vaccinated as a condition of employment. The requirement will assess all requests for religious, medical or any other accommodation required by state or local law on a case by case basis.
As for Thailand, there has yet to be any enforcement for a vaccine mandate from the government sector, but the vaccination rate is still increasing consistently. More than 73% of the population has been given a first shot, while more than 65% are fully vaccinated. Booster shots account for nearly 9%. The infection rate after the new year event is around 8,000 cases per day or 0.0114% of the total population.
Based on the scientific data, it is undeniable that Covid-19 vaccine, whether it be mRNA, viral vector or killed vaccine, can help reduce hospitalizations and fatalities greatly, which is why the governments are urging their people the get the jabs from either mandate or persuasion.
Normalcy like pre-Covid era may not be seen in a few years, but at least the country can move on and the economy can recover.
