Vaccine resistance, Part I: Grocery workers were on the front lines of the pandemic — so why so many still unvaccinated?

Grocery workers were on the front lines of the pandemic — so why do so many remain unvaccinated? “I could see us doing [a vaccine mandate] if people were dying like crazy,” said one worker who has resisted calls from his employer to get vaccinated. NBC News

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last year, almost 500 retail and meatpacking workers have died from Covid-19, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International labor union. Yet many workers whose colleagues got sick and even died during the depths of the pandemic are rejecting their employers’ pushes to get vaccinated.

From Walmart to the meat giant Tyson Foods, an increasing number of companies have rolled out vaccination mandates for corporate staff members or all employees. But efforts to encourage workers to get vaccinated — and recent vaccination mandates — have caused rifts and pushback among workers, leading some companies to stop short of requiring vaccinations for front-line staffers. ...

Resistance to vaccinations and to potential mandates remains nearly two years into a pandemic that has ravaged the retail and grocery industry. Because of their heightened exposure to the public, the risk of death from the virus among food workers increased by 39 percent and by 18 percent among retail workers, compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to a University of California San Francisco study published in January. The virus increased the risk of death among nonessential workers by 11 percent. ...