Reason No. 4: Businesses Want Their Employees Vaccinated but Have Been Too Scared to Mandate It

Big businesses have clearly wanted their workers to get vaccinated, both because nobody likes it when employees get sick and can’t show up for work, but also because severe COVID cases drive up the cost of health insurance. Delta Air Lines, which has announced it will start charging employees a surcharge on their premiums if they don’t get vaccinated, recently shared that the average hospital stay cost them $50,000. But while some major companies have gone ahead with mandates, others have been scared due to fears that employees will quit at a time that it’s very difficult to hire. Their fears might be exaggerated, but they are not irrational: According to the Washington Post’s polling, 42 percent of unvaccinated workers say they’d quit if their employer attempted to force them to get a shot. It’s a dumb collective-action problem, where one business won’t act because others haven’t. A federal mandate is an obvious way to solve a collective-action problem.