Vaccines have significantly lowered the rate to which COVID-19 is spread, however this virus is still being contracted among large unvaccinated groups. Companies have taken the initiative to eliminate the virus by mandating vaccines for their employees, but this decision has not come without backlash from many Americans.

The mandate mainly affects health care workers, yet other industries are requesting the same requirement. Retail workers that are preparing for a massive influx of customers for the holidays urge companies to mandate the vaccine before another spike in cases leaves people without a job. Elissa Noles (’25) advocates for this immediate action.

“I think it’s necessary to make workers get vaccinated because it keeps the customers and the rest of the workers safe. It decreases the chances of you getting COVID-19 or even a bad case that could be deadly,” Noles said.

An alternative path that organizations have opted to follow is the use of incentives given to workers in exchange for receiving the COVID-19 vaccination. This includes money, gift cards, and other prizes to encourage their employees to take action in stopping the spread. COO of Provider Operations at UnitedHealth Group, Mike Baker, appreciates the effort made by companies to increase the number of vaccinated employees.

“Companies really have four options: they can try to decentivize it by charging you more for your insurance, they could force you to get the vaccine, they could give you money and other incentives, or they could do nothing. I think that the middle category of providing these incentives is really powerful and could be the thing that pushes people who may not know much about the vaccine to get it, so I love the idea of companies offering incentives,” Baker said.

Airlines have mandated the vaccine in order to participate in international travel. Not specific to the United States; Canada, Denmark, France, Morocco, and many other countries are accepting tourists as long as they are fully vaccinated. Hannah Walbrun (’21) believes that it is necessary to be vaccinated for travel.

“Countries mandating vaccines to keep the number of cases low makes sense because you want the airline to be able to fly all around the world without any concerns,” Walbrun said.

Among an uproar of polarity surrounding the COVID-19 vaccination it is important to maintain educated and cautious of the false information being spread about the coronavirus. For more information about the vaccine visit www.cdc.gov/coronavirus (Links to an external site.).