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Businesses push back against vaccine mandate





Anthony Greer gets his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from Bhikhari Mishra at Nashville General Hospital on Aug. 20.John Partipilo / Associated Press

Anthony Greer gets his first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from Bhikhari Mishra at Nashville General Hospital on Aug. 20.John Partipilo / Associated Press

Reaction from businesses in Tennessee has been less than receptive to the vaccine mandate recently announced by the Biden administration.

President Joe Biden announced plans on Sept. 9 to implement a federal vaccine mandate that included a requirement for businesses with 100 or more employees to have its employees vaccinated or receive a weekly COVID-19 test.

It has been reported the requirement could carry a $14,000 fine for employers per violation (i.e. each employee not vaccinated) and would impact two-thirds of the country’s workforce.

Employers would also be required to provide paid time-off to employees to receive the vaccine.

A recent survey released by the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry demonstrated there is considerable pushback against the vaccine mandate among state businesses.

“President Biden’s recent actions establishing significant vaccination verification and testing for employers is not the right solution,” the chamber said in a press release.

 

 

The chamber said that a significant majority of businesses surveyed, 76%, “opposed the federal government dictating vaccination protocols to businesses.”

However, the chamber, in the same release, stated it was not opposed to the vaccines.

“The Tennessee Chamber and businesses across the state have worked diligently to ensure a safe and healthy workplace for employees and customers during this difficult time,” it said. “We believe the COVID-19 vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the transmission of the virus and keep Tennessee’s economy on track.

“Our country is in a severe workforce shortage crisis and these actions only stand to exacerbate the difficult staffing conditions employers find themselves in. This type of sweeping government mandate enforced through significant occupational safety requirements challenges our economic competitiveness and is not the right thing to impose on private businesses at this time.”

One business, Nashville-based Daily Wire, has publicly stated it will not comply with the mandate.

“The Daily Wire does have more than 100 employees, but we won’t be enforcing Joe Biden’s unconstitutional and tyrannical vaccine mandate,” said Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing in a video posted by the online entity. “That’s it. We’ll use every tool at our disposal including legal action to resist.”

Similar to the chamber, Boreing stated he is not anti-vaccine but believes it should be an individual choice.

“It’s not that we are anti-vaccine, I am actually very pro-vaccine,” he said. “I think the COVID-19 vaccines are probably the greatest scientific achievement so far in the 21st century. He (Biden) has no right to impose this burden on the American people.”

In total, approximately 1.97 million Tennessee workers will be impacted by the mandate, including 4,156 Tennessee employers who have 100 or more employees, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor.

The Biden administration is looking to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to implement its mandate and for Tennessee, along with 25 other states that have an OSHA-approved state plan, the mandate would go beyond private employers and also require public sector state and local government entities with over 100 employees, including educators, to receive the vaccine.

Gov. Bill Lee also joined the chorus of voices raising concerns over the vaccine mandate, while still supporting the actual vaccine.

“The Constitution won’t allow this power grab, and in the meantime, I will stand up for all Tennesseans,” Lee posted on Twitter on Sept. 9 shortly after Biden’s announcement.

“To be clear, the vaccine is the best tool we have to combat the pandemic but heavy-handed mandates are the wrong approach.”

However, some businesses were already taking a proactive approach to getting employees vaccinated prior to Biden’s executive order.

The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce gathered information via a member survey between Aug. 24 and Sept 10 — mostly prior to Biden’s announcement — that indicated nearly 20% of responding businesses have offered either cash incentives to individual employees, cash incentives to the entire staff based on percentage of staff vaccinations or other incentives.

As of Sept. 19, Tennessee ranks fourth-highest nationally with a daily average of 7,438 COVID-19 cases per data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It ranks near the bottom with 44% of vaccine-eligible Tennesseans being fully vaccinated.

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