| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, an EVA suit of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here.  Cool. Just don't work in the hospital. Photographer: Luis Ascui/Getty Images AsiaPac Working in a hospital or dentist's office without being vaccinated for Covid seems like doing EVAs outside Jeff Bezos's spaceship without a spacesuit because you have some concerns about spacesuit technology, and also Marjorie Taylor Greene says spacesuits are a Chinese hoax. But by some estimates, roughly a quarter or more of health-care workers don't want a Covid shot. You'd think they'd want to avoid the sheer embarrassment of having to be cared for and later mocked by their co-workers, but no. Maybe a late, abrupt turn by Sean Hannity and other prominent conservative thinkers toward vaccine advocacy will change some minds. To that end, Karl Smith argues President Joe Biden should invite Donald Trump to the White House and shower him with praise in exchange for getting him to endorse vaccination. While we wait for that to happen, though, it's long past time for health-care employers to start making workers get vaccinated, Bloomberg's editorial board writes. Other businesses should feel free to give it a spin, too. After all, courts have already signaled mandates are OK. About 97% of all Covid hospitalizations are unvaccinated people now. Keeping them safe, and avoiding "breakthrough" infections for the rest of us, could involve the kind of lockdowns and mask mandates everybody hates. The good news for the vaccinated — as long as the unvaxxed don't brew up some mega-variant in their bodies — is that existing vaccines work really well against all the Covid mutations out there right now, including the delta variant. They're so good, in fact, that we probably won't need booster shots soon, if ever, Faye Flam writes. Covid vaccines: They're like an indestructible spacesuit for your immune system. Further Covid Reading: Israel is keeping all its public-safety options open. — Zev Chafets There's no reason to worry about inflation, except for all the inflation. In his latest Are We Zimbabwe Yet? dashboard, John Authers notes that all the official inflation measures and all the inflation surveys are honking red (or blue in this dashboard's case). But every other inflation bucket— markets, commodity prices, economist forecasts, wages — is empty.  In light of this information, Bloomberg Opinion Today is maintaining its Inflation Threat Level at four (4) Volckers out of 10.  Given our worries about how the delta variant will hit growth, it really does seem as if the inflation we've seen lately is temporary. Take soaring shipping costs. Conor Sen points out the bottlenecks (see Canal, Suez) driving prices higher aren't the sort of thing that triggers an inflationary spiral. In fact, they're a drag on the economy. Raising interest rates to fight this kind of inflation makes no sense, though it's a mistake the Fed has made before. Bonus Central Banking Reading: Quantitative easing is not helpful in this economy, and it's time to start cutting back. — Mervyn King Winnebago is using some of the cash it made on the pandemic RV fad to buy into the pandemic boating fad, writes Brooke Sutherland.  Mock Bezos all you want, but space commercialization will benefit everybody in the long run. — Michael R. Strain The Olympics are figuring out how to get viewers excited when there aren't any crowds. — Tim Culpan Covid has worsened South Africa's deep inequalities and fueled its recent unrest. — Clara Ferreira Marques Congress should help the disabled get care in their community rather than in institutions. — Ari Ne'eman Trump pal Thomas Barrack was arrested. Airbnb aid after a death is called damage control. Tom Brady visits the White House, mocks Trump. Japan learns to transmit data very, very quickly. (h/t Ellen Kominers) Norway's beach handball team was fined for wearing shorts instead of bikinis. (h/t Mike Smedley) Star Trek's warp drive is a little closer to reality. Ridiculous reviews of national parks.  Notes: Please send park reviews and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. |
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