There is much stupidity in President Biden's latest speech, but I want to focus on one aspect that has not been widely discussed.  The president wants to exempt businesses that have less than 100 employees from the vaccine mandate.  What is the thinking behind this inanity?  A business with less than 100 employees is currently not exempt from OSHA regulations.  Current OSHA law offers a partial exemption from OSHA paperwork requirements for companies with fewer than 10 people.  OSHA also "does not govern employers and employees in industries that are regulated by Federal and State agencies."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of businesses with fewer than 100 employees is 98.2.  On the SBA website, you can see that businesses with fewer than 100 people employ approximately 40 million. 

Are we to think the virus is going to magically avoid all these small businesses?  Are there data that show that employees of small businesses are vaccinated at a greater rate than large businesses? 

The White House chief of staff thinks this is what passes for clever policy. 

Once again, this administration is making political statements that masquerade as public health announcements.  It does not yet seem to dawn on these people that they are taking the exact wrong approach to combat vaccine hesitancy.  They are not very bright and are not serious but want to appear to be doing something.

Even if implemented (which I am not advocating), the Biden plan will do nothing to control the spread of the virus.  In trying to improve their short-term political standing, they are doing long-term damage to democratic norms and the credibility of public health institutions in the United States. 

Image: Gage Skidmore.

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