Some of us have been saying this for well over a year. Welcome to the club. Mandates not only don’t work. They are counterproductive.

Mandates have curbed almost everything except COVID-19 cases

Someone has to say it, and I derive no pleasure from doing so. But here goes:

 

The Omicron wave is exposing the limits of COVID-19 restrictions, which are clearly failing. These include ferociously debated vaccine passports and masking policies that have done little, if anything, to tame skyrocketing numbers throttling the Northeast.

 

Hard-hit travel, leisure and small businesses — especially restaurants — are bearing the brunt of questionable protocols that clearly need rethinking, if not scrapping outright. And for the record, it’s not just America. China’s aggressive zero-COVID policies that have exacerbated global supply chain problems aren’t doing much to curb the spread there, either.

 

“At this point, vaccine mandates are more disempowering to business than empowering,” Denise Graziano, CEO of Graziano Associates, a marketing communications firm, told the Morning Brief in an email.

 

“Policies, tools and communication must adapt to where we are now two full years into the pandemic, Graziano added. “Vaccines have been invaluable to bring us to this point, but mandating drives away customers, good employees, job candidates, and creates more division inside (and outside) of organizations.”