Coronavirus Update 9-21-21: Covid-19 has now killed as many Americans as the Spanish flu

Covid-19 just passed a grim, sad, and preventable milestone. It has killed as many Americans, 675,000, as the last pandemic we suffered, the 1917 Spanish flu. That's more than 226 9/11s.

What makes Covid-19 so much worse than the 1917 pandemic is that we know so much more and we should have been able to end this long before reaching this point.

More than anything else, we have a virus-slowing, life-saving vaccine that 45 percent of the country has failed to fully take. Before the vaccine, we had face masks that a similar percentage of our country railed and rallied against. 

As a nation, many too many of us have chosen politics over science, and fiction over reality. As a result, too many have died, and more have fallen ill and suffered.

Coronavirus Update 9-20-21: Fetal stem cells and vaccine-mandate religious exemptions

As the debate over religious exemptions to workplace Covid vaccine mandates, one hospital has taken a unique approach to verify the sincerity of its employees' anti-vax religious beliefs.

The issue stems from the misconception that Pfizer-BioNTech's and Moderna's mRNA vaccines contain aborted fetal cells, and certain people's religious objections to abortion.

In reality, the vaccines do not contain aborted fetal cells, although Pfizer and Moderna did use fetal cell lines — cells grown in a laboratory that are based on aborted fetal cells collected generations ago — in testing during research and development of the mRNA vaccines.

WIRTW #596: the “Waterloo" edition

It was a busy week in the Hyman house last week, with middle school soccer games and rock 'n' roll gigs all over town for my kids. I'm happy to report that Donovan led his team to a hard-fought 3-3 tie in his first-ever sports event of any kind (which he followed up with a 13-0 romp). Okay, led might be a tad strong. He played, and that’s all that matters. 

As for Norah, she played not one, not two, not three, but four gigs in six days, with the first three all happening within 24 hours of each other. I love watching Norah perform any time she's on stage, but her set at the Waterloo Arts Fest might be my favorite that she's ever played because it was 40 minutes of all original songs. To do that at 15 years old is pretty impressive, at least in this proud dad's opinion. Here's the best nine minutes from her set (the best because I actually think they are her three strongest songs), captured and posted by someone who wandered through.

Here are the best things I read online this past week that I think you should be reading, too.

Coronavirus Update 9-15-21: Do mandatory vaccination policies have an adverse impact on minority employees?

With President Biden's announcement of his plan to vaccinate all employees of employers with 100 or more employees, the nation is keenly focused on workplace mandatory vaccination policies. This has led some to question whether the President's plan unlawfully discriminates against minority employees.

There is little doubt that vaccination rates among Blacks and Hispanics lags behind that of Whites (which isn't that great to begin with). At the latest count, only 43% of Black Americans and 48% of Hispanic Americans are vaccinated, compared with 52% of White Americans. The reason for this greater vaccine hesitancy within minority communities is understandable and well documented, particularly when the government is promoting or flat-out requiring the vaccine. See the Tuskegee Experiment (one of our nation's greatest embarrassments … and that's saying a lot).

All of this begs the question — is a mandatory vaccination policy discriminatory against Blacks and Hispanics. Or, more technically speaking, does such a policy adversely impact them?

Employment law lessons from “Ted Lasso” – dating the boss

If you've not yet watched episode 8 (Man City) of the current second season of Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso and you don't want to be spoiled, now would be a good time to click the back button on your browser or close your email. Good? Okay. No grumbling; you've been warned.

Coronavirus Update 9-11-21: Here is why the vaccination ETS that Biden has directed OSHA to issue is likely illegal

President Biden has directed OSHA to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) mandating that all employers with 100 or more employees mandate the Covid vaccine for its employees or mandate weekly Covid testing.

Will this ETS pass the certain judicial challenges it will quickly face?

TL;DR: (As much as it pains me to have to write this) OSHA’s Covid vaccine mandate ETS is almost certainly illegal. Here’s why.

WIRTW #595: The “future of paid leave" edition

For all the negative effects that the Covid-19 pandemic has wrought, it has imparted some very positive changes to the American workplace. For example, remote work, long looked down upon by employers, is now the norm in many workplaces. Another area of constructive change surrounds the issue of paid leave for employees. 

Has Covid-19 altered our national attitude for paid sick and family leave? I believe that it has. The time has long since passed for America to embrace and adopt paid FMLA.

Presagia, the provider of cloud-based absence management solutions that enable organizations to strengthen compliance and the developer of Leave Genius Pro, recently asked me for my perspective on Covid-19 leave laws and their permanency. At their site, I share my full thoughts, including what my paid FML program would look like if Congress gave me carte blanche to design the law.

Here are 10 other things I read this week that I think you should read, too: