Vaccine mandates have become the next flashpoint in the screamed debate over how far governments and businesses should go to protect the public from coronavirus. And restaurants have little doubt they’ll once again be caught in the crossfire.
A survey conducted by Restaurant Business in the past week of 377 restaurant operators shows a considerable diversity of opinions within the industry on requirements that all employees and dine-in guests be vaccinated against COVID-19. About 3 out of 5 respondents (58%) said they oppose government mandates that restaurant guests and employees be required as a condition of entry to an establishment.
Nearly 3 out of 10 (28.2%) said they are not opposed to requiring proof of vaccination but wish governments would come up with a system of enforcement that doesn’t put restaurants on the frontline. In addition, 27.6% said they’d advise government officials to give more thought to how proof of vaccination could be checked without fostering confrontations between employees and anti-vaxxer or anti-mandate customers.
Indeed, 87.7% of opponents and supporters alike said they’d expect more conflicts between customers and guests if a mandate is imposed and their restaurant has to police it.
It was the strongest concern raised by far.
The next most likely problem, cited by 73% of respondents, was the loss of on-site business from customers who opt not to get vaccinated. More than half (50.6%) said they’d also expect to lose dine-in business from families since children under age 12 could not be admitted under most of the mandates and proposals that have been aired to date. (San Francisco intends to exempt the youngsters from its requirement.) The Food and Drug Administration has not approved the use of the three current vaccines on the market for children under that age, and has said that approval or the development of a variation suitable for children will not likely come until mid or late winter.
In general, respondents saw plenty of reasons for concern. Nearly 7 out of 10 (67.3%) predicted that employees would balk at being required to roll up their sleeves, and 43.8% said they fear that counterfeit vaccination cards would come into use.
“How do we know if an out-of-state verification is authentic? Will there be some sort of national document?” one respondent added in am open-ended section of the survey. All were provided with anonymity as a condition of participation. “Will it be like checking each state's IDs in a booklet?”
A number of respondents predicted in their comments that restaurants abiding by the mandates may find themselves boycotted by opponents of vaccines and health mandates.
Only 1.8% said they’d likely have no problems if a vaccine requirement was imposed.
Similarly, only 13.6% said they favor a mandate as a way of safeguarding their guests and staffs.
But 54.8% of respondents, pro and con, said they would foresee considerable benefits from having all dine-in guests and employees inoculated.
Chief among them: Lessening the chances of dining-room shutdowns or capacity caps, as cited by 35.2%.
About a third (31.2%) said vaccine requirements could ease the industry’s struggle to attract workers. With all guests and co-workers inoculated, job candidates might feel safer and more willing to work in a frontline job.
“If everyone is required to be vaccinated it will make hiring much simpler,” one participant commented.
Still, 45.6% of respondents said they see no advantage to having vaccinations required in their market.
That mindset was reflected in respondents’ response to a question about what advice they’d give government officials who were considering a vaccine mandate.
The top answer, cited by nearly half (48.5%) of the participants: “Don’t do this—you’re just creating problems.”