Delta Air Lines has told its staff that if they don’t get vaccinated against Covid, they will be forced to pay a $200 monthly health insurance surcharge. This comes shortly after President Joe Biden urged U.S. companies to “require your employees to get vaccinated or face strict requirements”. The Guardian has the story.
In a new memo sent to Delta employees, CEO Ed Bastian announced that unvaccinated employees enrolled in Delta’s account-based healthcare plan will be subject to a $200 monthly surcharge starting November 1st.
“The average hospital stay for Covid has cost Delta $50,000 per person. This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company,” Bastian wrote.
Starting September 12th, any U.S. employee who is not fully vaccinated will be required to take a Covid test each week. Additionally, starting from September 30th, Delta’s Covid pay protection will be provided only to fully vaccinated individuals who experience breakthrough infections.
Currently, 75% of Delta staff are vaccinated. The airline has also partnered with the state of Georgia to operate the state’s largest mass vaccination site at the Delta Flight Museum, where approximately 35% of Georgia’s mass vaccination doses were administered to residents.
“While we can be proud of our 75% vaccination rate, the aggressiveness of the variant means we need to get many more of our people vaccinated, and as close to 100% as possible,” Bastian added in the memo.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I love my Kawasaki Versys.
I also have a really good heavyweight SDS+ hammer drill by Kawasaki. Corded, of course.
The motorbike is not corded.
Principally Makita for me, two drills and a jigsaw although I do have a Bosch drill over thirty years old.
All corded.
I don’t think Makita make motor bikes.
You should check.
I had no idea Kawasaki made power tools.
Kawasaki make a very wide range of products, including at one time aircraft during WWII.
Corded motorbikes could be useful for the 15 minute cities… need quite an extension still though!
Here’s a clever person taking his ebike battery up in a lift to charge it in his flat: https://kaotic.com/video/27a78606_20240724225342_t
Well that’s one way to have a barbecue
Bloody hell! Poor man.
Imagine the same, but on wheels, driving along a motorway, in your brand new Tesla.
In fact, you don’t need to imagine it. Plenty of recorded events like this.
Horrific. Poor man, I hope it was swift.
I wonder what set off the reaction. I thought it was charging that caused this, but this was disconnected.
Any damage to the battery or a poorly manufactured cell can cause this. The cells can also have sharp metal crystals that puncture the separator and short out that cell causing it to heat up and then adjacent cells are subject to thermal runaway. The electrolyte decomposing gives off oxygen and that’s why these fires are so difficult to extinguish.
E-bay .leading where the govt should be going. Why aren’t ebikes classed as motorbikes (at least the petrol fueled variety aren’t prone to bursting into flames)?
I don’t think that all e-bikes should be classed as motorbikes if that means they need registration and mandatory insurance. There is (and should be) a class of vehicle which is driven (ridden) at the driver’s risk. A pedal cycle rider who causes injury through recklessness or negligence is always liable for any injury or damage caused – it does not matter if they do not have insurance to pay any compensation, that’s effectively a decision they made. With the greater potential for serious injury the state has mandated that the drivers of certain more powerful vehicles must have insurance to pay any compensation claims and to enforce that these classes of vehicle must be registered, and recognisable through a visible registration plate and with a known ‘keeper’ and limited to certain qualified drivers.
Sure, put a limit on what’s allowed without registration (oh, they did already). Maybe even (shock!) have the police stop some e-bikes or scooters which seem to be over-powered or otherwise exceed the limits. We could even arrange that footpaths are reserved for foot traffic (controversial)!
As for the risk of fire from these things. I have no problem if bringing explosive or otherwise dangerous things into a building is banned by the building owners – as long as they enforce the ban. There’s no point in banning something and then ignoring the fact that people are breaking the rules (this reminds me that voicing support for Hamas is illegal in the UK – but almost nobody is arrested for the offence).
I’d say eBay leading on anything is a bit strong – their ‘business sellers’ are almost guaranteed to sell tat as well, same as Amazon, it’s just they get paid more
Lithium batteris are you having a laugh. Puff on a vaping pen, use your laptop or phone. Just be aware that these things are more volatile than you like to believe. And the fire is rather difficult to put out.
It is disgusting. Imagine you bring the bike in your house and you set your kids and granny on fire for the sake of some not very impressive novelty technology. We need to come down hard on these devices because you can be assured that all over the world these batteries are blowing up likely with rapidly increasing frequency given the short life and volatility of these monstrosities.
If it’s your own house then it’s up to you to take the risk. If it’s an apartment in a block of flats or HMO then it’s up to the building owner (and their insurer). Despite the horrific video linked above, I say leave the decision on risk to the owner of the property. That said, people need to know and understand what the risks and consequences are.
Just as well I sold mine last year then.
It was being kept in the garage, along with a year’s supply of bio-ethanol, and I deemed the fire risk was too great.