Vaccination bonus for county workers will help

Early in the pandemic I hosted a virtual town hall on the topic of mental health. My guest was world-renowned, Severna Park-based psychologist Dr. George Everly, a man whose life work is community recovery from disaster, work that he’s done in 26 countries. He told us that our battle with COVID and our recovery from it could either bring us together or divide us. “Division delays recovery,” he warned, and I knew then that my responsibility as county executive was not only to save lives, but also to combat division.

Those of us who trust that scientists and doctors are working on our behalf have done what our parents and grandparents did during pandemics before us. We have followed public health guidance and been vaccinated.

But in our county, 20% of adults have so far refused to be vaccinated. The delta variant is making them sick, and Anne Arundel Medical Center is now postponing some elective surgeries that require overnight stays to accommodate those unvaccinated people. I heard from one of our EMT heroes at our 9/11 commemoration that emergency room waits are hours long and folks are exhausted.

Vaccinated people are losing patience with the 20%. The 20% are angry as well. Division is rampant, and it’s not healthy.

President Joe Biden is doing what presidents have done throughout our history. He is mandating public action for the common good, requiring some employers to implement vaccine mandates. I support his recent actions because I see no other way to vanquish this virus, but I watch with disappointment as politicians fan the flames of division.

I’m not alone in trying to both save lives and heal divisions. Virtually every business owner and employer in this county faces the same challenge. We all want customers and employees to have confidence and health, but today’s market makes losing disgruntled staff or customers who rebel against masks and vaccination very costly.

I confronted this challenge as an employer after announcing in early August that all county employees needed to be either vaccinated or tested weekly by mid-September. While most of our staff celebrated the decision, it heightened tensions. Anti-vaccine staff expressed outrage, threatened a flood of grievances, and demanded hours of overtime pay for getting the weekly test at great cost to taxpayers.

I could have played hardball, just as I could play hardball with the three county council members who ceremoniously introduced resolutions in opposition to our public health efforts throughout the pandemic. But instead, I listened. What I heard was anger, anger at not being respected, not being listened to — anger at being singled out from their peers in the workplace for their beliefs. These were otherwise good public servants who would be hard to replace. I needed a plan to address what I was hearing.

Most of the counties that got direct federal recovery funds allocated some to COVID premium or hazard pay. We were considering something similar, but had not made a final decision. Those federal funds, and our desire to thank employees after a tough year in which most got no pay increases, offered an incentive opportunity.

After confirming with our health officer that financial incentives have been shown to increase vaccination rates, we announced that every employee who shows proof of full COVID vaccination by Nov. 30 will receive a $1,000 bonus. Yes, the mandate will eventually come, as it is coming for all businesses with over 100 employees, but the carrot approach has significantly reduced workplace division while increasing vaccination rates and shifting our financial burden away from overtime pay for testing.

On Thursday morning I will share this experience with leaders of our chambers of commerce. We will assess where we stand in our joint efforts, review the federal mandate, and offer assistance to one another in achieving the two outcomes that our future depends on — saving lives and healing division.

We can and will do this, together.