contemplatingoutlander:

It looks like vaccine mandates are working. It also looks like many businesses are implementing them ahead of the final OSHA rules and in defiance of the anti-life dictates of certain Republican governors. 

According to Jennifer Rubin, writing for The Washington Post:

More than 218 million Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Cases and deaths are coming down. And a large part of the credit goes to American businesses.

“Every day, we see more businesses implementing vaccination requirements, and the mounting data that shows they work,” President Biden said on Thursday. “Businesses and organizations that are implementing requirements are seeing their vaccination rates rise by an average of 20 percent or more to well over 90 percent — the number of employees vaccinated.”

But to the credit of businesses, many have not waited for the OSHA rule to begin implementing mandates. In some cases, this has meant going up against a MAGA governor bent on pandering to the base at the expense of the health and lives of residents.  [….]

(How someone calling himself a “conservative” can claim the power to micromanage private businesses to make them less safe is beyond me.) 

Companies as diverse as BlackRock, McDonald’s, Cisco, IBM, Citigroup, CVS and Goldman Sachs have instituted some form of vaccine mandate. So have Google and Walmart. Many universities have done so as well — even before Biden announced the federal directive. [….]

In defying the MAGA death cult, business leaders are demonstrating what “pro-life” actually means.

The good news is that mandates are quite effective. Reuters reported: “Vaccination rates against covid-19 in the United States have risen by more than 20 percentage points after multiple institutions adopted vaccine requirements, while case numbers and deaths from the virus are down.” Roughly 66 million eligible Americans still are not vaccinated, but that is a huge improvement from 80 million or so before Biden rolled out his directive on vaccine mandates in early September.

This is a fine example of presidential leadership inspiring responsible, private-sector conduct. If only red-state governors would care as much about saving lives as businesses, local government officials and medical professionals in their states do, we might end the pandemic once and for all.

[emphasis added]