Increasing enforcement of the vaccination mandate against COVID-19 has led to thousands of unvaccinated workers in the United States finding themselves at the brink of losing their jobs.  

Surveys had earlier suggested that up to 50% of unvaccinated workers would contemplate quitting a job if it required the COVID-19 vaccine, which many people object to for a variety of reasons.

Stagnant vaccination rates, industry-destabilizing outbreaks of the delta variant, and the prospect of spending more time indoors as the weather cools are all elements contributing to the destabilisation of an economic recovery that began this summer.

Washington State University (WSU) fired its head football coach and four of his assistants on Monday for not complying with the state’s vaccine requirement, in the latest high-profile case. Nick Rolovich, the coach, had sought earlier this month for a religious exemption from the mandate.

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Several police officers and firefighters in Chicago, Baltimore and the likes of them can potentially lose their jobs soon under vaccine mandates that make it essential to report vaccination status. 

Interestingly, the mandates have successfully convinced many hesitant workers to get inoculated against the virus, which has taken more than 700,000 lives in the United States so far. “Some 77% of eligible Americans have received at least one shot of a vaccine,” White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters last week. 

Situation in Chicago is a little different in that Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been dealing with the police union standing against the mandate for city workers. Nearly one-third of city’s police employees failed to report their vaccination status by Friday’s deadline.

“Fundamentally, what this all is about is about saving lives. It’s about maximizing the opportunity to create a safe workplace,” Lightfoot said on Monday. 

Friday saw nearly 200 Boeing Co (BA.N) employees and a few others hold a protest against the plane-maker’s demand for 125,000 workers to be vaccinated by December 8. This came under a President Joe Biden issued executive order for federal contractors. 

Biden’s vaccine mandates will cover nearly 100 million people, or roughly two-thirds of the US workforce, in addition to the rule for federal workers and contractors. 

Biden’s private-sector vaccine idea has been discussed at the White House with leaders from several large corporations.