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Since March 2020, many American businesses have had a rough go of things. Shutdowns severely hurt countless establishments nationwide; some businesses that were around before the pandemic started are no longer around today, thanks to forced closures from the government. After the shutdowns came capacity restrictions. These restrictions greatly limited the amount of customers a business could service in certain timeframes or periods. As such, these limits hurt the bottom lines of businesses that were already struggling. Even after the shutdowns and capacity restrictions came to an end, staffing shortages have become a new problem. With the announcement of President Biden's nationwide COVID vaccine mandate (something Republicans are vowing to fight in court the moment it officially goes into action), staffing shortages are just getting worse.

More troubling times ahead for U.S. businesses

For nearly the past two years, the country's businesses have been put through the wringer; however, it's not over yet. COVID vaccine mandates are driving away potential workers from businesses that implement these requirements. Furthermore, as certain establishments implement vaccine mandates, many workers are responding with either lawsuits or quitting. Health officials in New York recently scored a win after a judge ruled that the state couldn't implement a COVID vaccine mandate without religious exemptions. However, other healthcare workers have chosen to walk away from employers mandating the COVID vaccine. In New York, one hospital actually had to halt baby delivery services, due to a mass number of workers quitting over the COVID vaccine mandate. Meanwhile, recently polling shows that more than seven in ten unvaccinated Americans would quit their jobs before getting the COVID vaccine, if their employers mandated this shot as a condition of employment.

An undoable mandate?

If businesses stick with their COVID vaccine mandates, they will have significantly fewer workers. There will come a point when these establishments simply have too few workers to operate their businesses. Therefore, they will have to choose whether or not mandating the COVID vaccine is worth going out of business altogether. As the country's leaders push for COVID vaccine mandates, Americans are pushing back. They also have the support of Republicans who are largely pro-vaccine, yet anti-mandate.