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Visitors to the Grand Central Market are mostly masked on Tuesday, July 27, 2021 in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times / TNS)
Brian van der Brug
Los Angeles Times Editorial
The delta variant is spreading rapidly in California and across the country, but luckily the crackdown by public and private employers is aimed at limiting the ability of their unvaccinated workers to infect others with COVID-19.
On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced new rules requiring vaccination or regular testing and masking for the 246,000 state government employees; the rules will also apply to workers in private and public health care facilities and long-term care facilities. Similar labor rules have emerged across the country, including in the city of Los Angeles.
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that federal civilian workers and on-site contractors should also be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo regular testing and other infection control restrictions to stay on. job. Meanwhile, Google, Facebook and a number of other tech companies say they will require employees to be vaccinated in order to return to their desks when their offices finally reopen.
Hooray. It’s time for stubbornly unvaccinated people to be held accountable for their role in the COVID-19 resurgence.
It is unfortunate that such measures are necessary when safe vaccines are plentiful and available to eligible Americans. But health officials looking to slow infection rates have few options, none of which would be popular among pandemic conspirators on social media and in elected office. Additionally, these policies appear to have had some effect in California, which has seen a 20% increase in inoculation rates over the past week.
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