eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Dec 21, 2021 4:23 pm
Are hospitals overflowing or is bed availability down because they are understaffed after firing unvaccinated staff? I suspect the latter.
The hospital my daughter-in-law works at had to close down entire floors because of the number of nurses let go. That is a staffing issue induced directly because of vaccine mandates.
It's a mix of both and depends on where you are. Here in Maryland, a hospital was reactivated due to the pandemic... and hasn't shut back down yet. Hearing the metrics here tells me hospitals are fully staffed (there's no mandate for health care workers here as far as I know).
Companies making these decisions now are creating artificial issues in the marketplace, and where Healthcare is concerned, it's especially troubling that you would have a nursing shortage induced by policy.
I suspect that companies needing larger numbers of manual/skilled laborers (especially in rural/suburban areas) are going to slow walk mandate actions. That includes railroads, airlines, manufacturing and retailers.
Big tech companies and banks will move ahead full speed because they know there are people waiting to go work for them.
Some of the issues are decades in the making. It'll take a few more years for it to shake out. By then the participation rate will be back up.
Amtrak specifically was concerned enough to issue public releases stating they would need to reduce services "out there" due to staffing issues. I don't think they are going to back towards a mandate knowing that they will then again have to reduce services.
They for sure won't go willingly, but from actions taken, they won't put up much of a fight ether.