Letters to the Editor: Has the Supreme Court learned nothing about vaccines during the pandemic?
To the editor: The highly contagious Omicron variant has confirmed and made clearer the lesson we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic — that if safeguards are ignored by employers in an effort to keep their businesses fully operating, it will eventually result in their workers and customers falling ill and being unable to work or patronize them. It ultimately works against them. (“Supreme Court blocks Biden’s vaccine mandate for the workplace,” Jan. 13)
We also know that the more the virus is allowed to run rampant, the more likely it is that new, more dangerous variants will emerge and spread. Businesses that don’t want to require vaccines or take other precautions are choosing a short-term solution that results in greater long-term losses.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices who dissented from the majority decision to strike down most of President Biden’s workplace vaccination rules got it right. The court’s opinion prevents the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration from implementing measures that help protect workers from the deadliest threat in a century.
By siding with businesses focused on short-term problems, the court’s majority has assured that the pandemic and the economic consequences will be prolonged. It has also likely guaranteed that more people will needlessly die from COVID-19.
Ruth Smith, Orange
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To the editor: The headline for your article on the court’s decision to invalidate Biden’s vaccination mandates may as well have read, “Abandon all hope all who enter.”
How are we ever going to eliminate COVID-19 unless everyone cooperates? I don’t understand these people. How do they think we got rid of polio and smallpox?
I, for one, will not be entering any restaurants or offices of any kind that do not have a policy of every employee being vaccinated. I am sure I am not alone.
Lorraine Knopf, Santa Monica
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To the editor: This is what happens when five out of nine justices are nominated by a president who first came into office with fewer votes than his opponent.
Pack the Court? More like save the court.
Unless Democrats show the courage of their convictions and increase the size of the court, these five justices are going to continue to rule in ways that run counter to the demonstrated will of the voters.
Ronald O. Richards, Los Angeles
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To the editor: In all seriousness, can we acknowledge that part of the reason hospitals in Southern California are experiencing staffing shortages is because of the vaccination mandate?
How about dropping the mandates and allowing our COVID-negative unvaccinated nurses and doctors to return to work?
Vaccinated people also transmit COVID-19. I would rather be treated by an unvaccinated COVID-negative nurse than a vaccinated COVID-positive one.
Susan Bohannon, Winnetka
