‘Boost everybody.’ CEOs should mandate boosters before returning office workers, Andy Slavitt says.
The Omicron coronavirus variant will cause a “winter wave” that will complicate the return of workers to offices in the United States, according to Andy Slavitt, a former senior pandemic adviser to President Joe Biden.
“The beginning of 2022 will be rough,” Slavitt told CNN in a phone interview.
Scientists are still studying the characteristics of Omicron, but early research suggests symptoms may be less severe, though the new variant may spread more rapidly.
“The problem with Omicron is hotspots will be easier to generate,” Slavitt said. “The things that might have been two or three people getting Covid in the office will be 15 or 30 people getting Covid.”
That’s why Slavitt, who in June stepped down from Biden’s Covid-19 response team, said CEOs should rethink their office reopening plans.
“If I’m an employer with the option to have people work virtually, I am going to continue to take that,” he said, adding that not every company “has that luxury.”…Read More