No one should have to worry about being put at risk as they earn a living.
Wendell Young IV is president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1776, which represents 35,000 Pennsylvania workers in retail, health care, manufacturing, and food processing, among other industry sectors. It’s time we all acknowledge the plain fact that the only way our nation will turn the tide against the COVID-19 pandemic is if employers mandate that all employees must be vaccinated if they want to work. The delta variant has driven cases to frightening levels, and cases among children and teenagers are spiking. While the rate of vaccinations in the Philadelphia region is rising, it isn’t where it needs to be. While it is everyone’s choice to vaccinate or not, no one has the right to put others at unnecessary risk as they earn a living. People aren’t allowed to smoke cigarettes at the workplace, because doing so threatens the health of coworkers and customers. Why should anti-vaxxers expect to have the right to risk exposing fellow workers — and their families — to a deadly virus? We know that the vaccines work. Every real study comes to that conclusion. There are breakthrough cases, but the data and science show unvaccinated people are the reason for the current climb in serious illness, hospitalizations, and deaths.
