VOA慢速英语--部分美国人因为拒绝疫苗面临失业

Thousands of American workers face possible job losses as requirements to be vaccinated¹ against COVID-19 begin to be enforced.

The vaccine² requirements, known as mandates⁴, from governments and companies have faced opposition⁵ across the country. But they have also been effective at persuading many workers to get vaccinated.

COVID-19 has killed more than 700,000 people in the United States. U.S. officials say about 77 percent of individuals who are eligible⁶ for a vaccine have received at least one shot.

One of the latest public disputes over the issue happened this week at Washington State University (WSU). The university's head football coach was fired along with four assistants for failing to obey the state's vaccine requirement. The coach, Nick Rolovich, had sought a religious exception to the rule earlier this month.

School officials said the vaccine requirement is aimed at protecting the safety of its teachers and students. "Experience is showing that vaccine mandates help motivate people to complete the vaccination⁷ process," said Marty Dickinson, who heads WSU's Board of Regents.

However, the mandates are causing concern about worker shortages across several industries.

Thousands of police officers and firefighters in cities like Chicago and Baltimore are at risk of losing their jobs soon. They are facing rules that require them to report whether they are vaccinated.

In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been battling with the city's police labor⁸ union. It does not support the vaccine mandate³ for city workers. About one third of the city's 12,770 police employees failed to report their vaccination status last week as required. Some officers have had their pay cut off.

Lightfoot has said the mandate is aimed at "saving lives" and creating a safe workplace. She accused the union of trying to start an "insurrection" by opposing the rule.

The administration of President Joe Biden has been behind the push to get more Americans vaccinated.

Last week, about 200 Boeing Company employees and others held a protest. They oppose the airplane maker's requirement that 125,000 workers be vaccinated by December 8. That rule is linked to an executive order issued by Biden for federal contractors⁹.

The rules for another order covering private businesses with 100 or more employees are expected to be finalized¹⁰ soon.

Along with the mandate for federal workers and contractors, Biden's vaccine requirements will affect about 100 million people. That is about two-thirds of the U.S. workforce¹¹.

A series of layoffs¹² has already moved through the healthcare industry. The industry acted faster than others to put vaccine mandates in place.

Nurses and other healthcare workers who chose to leave their jobs rather than be vaccinated recently spoke¹³ to Reuters news agency. They said they were concerned over a lack of long-term data about the three vaccines¹⁴ currently available in the U.S.

The vaccines received emergency use approval from the Food and Drug Administration in less than a year. Most medical experts have said they are safe. They have supported their statements by noting large vaccine trials and saying hundreds of millions have received injections worldwide.

Some companies are taking steps to reassure¹⁵ workers that their requests for medical or religious exceptions will be given serious consideration.

Southwest Airlines spoke to its employees last week. The company said it would permit the unvaccinated to continue working rather than being placed on unpaid¹⁶ leave. Southwest said that would be the case if the requests for exceptions have not been examined by the government's December 8 deadline.

Words in This Story

eligible – adj. qualified¹⁷ to take part in a program or activity

coach – n. someone whose job is to teach people to improve at a sport, skill or school subject

motivate – v. to give someone a reason for doing something

status – n. the state of a situation at a particular time

insurrection – n. the use of force by a group of people to try to get control of a government

reassure – v. to say something to stop someone from worrying

deadline – n. a time by which something must be done

1 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

2 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

3 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

4 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

7 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

8 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

9 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 finalized   

vt.完成（finalize的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The draft of this article has been finalized [done]. 这篇文章已经定稿。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The draft was revised several times before it was finalized. 稿子几经删改才定下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

12 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

15 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

16 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

17 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。