Vaccination Mandates: 'I Lost My Job Because I Wasn't Vaccinated.'
Danielle Thornton was waiting for her children in the school pick-up line when she discovered she might have to choose between getting the Covid-19 vaccine and losing her nearly nine-year employment at Citigroup.
She and her husband had been watching for months as bosses around the United States imposed vaccine mandates, knowing that their family would be affected. Then it arrived in the form of an email on her phone
"We had a lot of discussions about it," she admits. "However, in the end, we concluded that our liberty was more important than a paycheck
Danielle is one of thousands of people in the United States who have chosen to forfeit their jobs rather than receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
They are a small percentage of the population. Most employers who have implemented such policies, which include approximately a third of the country's largest corporations and 15% of small enterprises, claim that the vast majority of their employees have followed them.
More than 99 percent of Citi's 6,500 US employees have received the shots, which are safe and the best strategy to prevent serious infection, according to specialists.
Mandates, however, which are viewed as critical to getting America's 25% unvaccinated to get the shots, are facing significant opposition across the country, with many seeing them as infringing on cherished national notions of personal freedom and privacy.
The Supreme Court this month rejected a rule proposed by President Joe Biden that would have forced Americans working in organizations with at least 100 employees to get vaccinated or wear masks.
The Supreme Court last month rejected a rule proposed by President Joe Biden that would have compelled Americans working in organizations with at least 100 employees to be vaccinated or mask and test regularly on their own dime.
The law was dubbed "a substantial invasion" on the lives of millions of workers by judges of the nation's highest court, thus putting an end to national rules like those intended in Germany.
Despite the fact that US courts have become more accommodating of states and companies imposing their own standards, public rejection remains high.