Private companies such as Disney Cruise Line, Southwest Airlines and American Airlines are going against the ban on vaccine mandates in states such as Florida and Texas. These companies are still requiring proof of vaccination from their patrons despite the states they are based in banning these types of mandates.
This begs the question: should private companies have the power to enforce vaccine mandates, even when they are banned by their home state?
Private companies deserve to have this power. This is an issue that concerns life and death. If the patrons and employees of these companies are unvaccinated, they can cause a major outbreak.
Southwest Airlines, Dallas-based, and American Airlines, Fort Worth-based, said that they will require their employees to be vaccinated to be allowed to continue to work. This goes against the statewide ban on vaccine mandates.
Airplanes are confined spaces, meaning that Covid can spread unreasonably fast. But, if all employees are vaccinated, the rate of transmission would decrease significantly.
In Florida, the government is only banning private companies from mandating vaccines for patrons. The Disney Cruise Line continues to require guests and employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Because they mandate guests to be vaccinated, they are under review by the state.
Private companies should be able to mandate vaccines that their employees and customers must comply with. When the world is still suffering from a pandemic, vaccines need to be mandated.
States should not have the power to control what privately owned companies do in regards to customer and employee safety. There needs to be a separation between the two. The only reason that the government should have any say at all in how private companies run their businesses is in regards to fair pay and fair treatment of employees.
When the political bias of a governor or state representative takes priority over the well-being of the people of that state, there is something wrong. The world of politics has become very divisive and changed the priorities of the people who are in charge of our government.
Politics seem to have become a facet for politicians to get money and power rather than work for the people and do what is best for them. If politicians like Gov. Abbott and Gov. DeSantis, who are notoriously right-wing conservatives, would put aside their political views surrounding COVID-19 and the vaccines, they would not ban these vaccine mandates.
These are unfortunately just a few examples of private companies that needed to go against the bans on vaccine mandates from the state in which their company is based. There are far too many state officials in this country that are allowing their political bias to control the decisions they have made and continue to make in regards to the pandemic.
They need to keep their politics out of private companies who are prioritizing the safety of their employees, patrons and the greater good of our country. If they continue to mandate vaccines, they can help continue to slow the spread.
Private companies should be allowed to mandate COVID-19 vaccines and they should rightfully oppose the bans that conservative governors have in place.
agiampag@ramapo.edu