CNN Commentator Suggests Companies Will Be ‘Grateful’ That Joe Biden Is ‘Playing Bad Cop’ By Mandating Vaccines
Employers are likely to be “grateful” to have the federal government “playing bad cop” by mandating the Covid-19 vaccine, said CNN economics commentator Catherine Rampell on Thursday, in response to new vaccine mandates for large companies announced by President Joe Biden on Thursday.
The new plan, reported CNN OutFront host Erin Burnett, will require workers at all American companies with more than 100 employees to be vaccinated or tested at least once a week.
“Are all companies going to welcome this new rule on vaccines?” asked Burnett. “Does it give them cover or will some truly resent it?”
“I’m sure that some will resent it and some will fight it,” replied Rampell. “But I think there will be a lot of firms that are frankly grateful that they can have government there playing bad cop.”
“There are a number of companies that have mandated vaccines,” she added. “Kudos to them. They include my employer and your employer as well.” (In addition to being a CNN economics commentator, Rampell is a columnist for the Washington Post).
“That’s right,” Burnett agreed.
The problem, Rampell said, was how “polarizing” vaccines had become, so that the companies that were mandating vaccines “by and large are mandating it for people who are already vaccinated…for the most part, companies are basically reflecting back the existing preferences and behaviors of their own workforces and their own customers.”
These companies, she explained, were worried about “alienating” their workers, citing Walmart as an example. The retail giant has a vaccine mandate for white collar employees but not the front line blue collar employees, who the statistics show are less likely to get vaccinated.
It was “really helpful,” said Rampell, for government to be there as “the fall guy,” so that “employers can say, ‘look, if it were up to me, you could do whatever you want, but I’m sorry, big bad government is on my case and says you have to get the shot.'”
These vaccine mandates “could save lives” in the case of companies like Walmart, replied Burnett, since front line blue workers are exposed to a higher level of risk of catching Covid-19 than the white collar workers.
Watch the video above, via CNN.
