A month ago, New York City started to introduce vaccine mandates for businesses like indoor dining, gyms, and entertainment venues, which officially took effect on September 13th. These places will now require employees and customers to be checked for proof of vaccination in order to enter these establishments. The hope for the city is that these provisions will encourage those who are unvaccinated to go out and get the shot.
However, this has been (unsurprisingly) met with resistance already. Restaurant owners and small businesses sued the city in an attempt to stop the mandate from going into place. Joseph Smith, the owner of Bobby Van’s Steakhouse, a steakhouse in the city, claims that, in the past six weeks, he has lost $1.8 million in bookings.
Though this vaccine mandate is a necessary step in getting us closer to the end of the pandemic, and perhaps encouraging more and more people to get vaccinated. Knowing that this mandate is in place for these businesses will likely encourage at least a few more people to go out and get inoculated, and then, in turn, may convince even more to come out of the woodwork. It won’t be easy, but it’s still not out of the realm of possibility.
I think I speak for a good amount of people when I say that I am personally tired of having to talk about people who still won’t get vaccinated. We’re still not where we need to be when it comes to total vaccination numbers. It was reported recently by the New York Times that only 61.9 percent of Americans have been at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus since the first vaccine was rolled out last December, just slightly below Japan’s 62.2 percent. That is a very troubling number, in my opinion.
If mandating more and more businesses to require vaccinations is what it will take to get us closer to the ideal goal to put the pandemic to a close, so be it. The majority of people around the world, including myself, are sick and tired of this pandemic, so it’s time for more and more to act like it, and get the shot.
On the other hand, I have heard that, due to certain medical conditions, it may be hard for some people to get vaccinated, and that is very understandable, in my view. However, there are still a good amount of people who don’t meet these requirements who still aren’t even vaccinated. So, now, if restaurants and other businesses start to require vaccinations, it might then encourage those people and their loved ones to change their minds about getting inoculated, and, hopefully, more will soon follow. Then, these restaurant owners wouldn’t have to worry about the state of their restaurant, because customers wouldn’t have to worry about not being vaccinated. Everyone would win!
Of course, this is all easier said than done, but, again, it’s not impossible if we work together. Let’s not mess around anymore! Let’s come together and end this pandemic!
