| The new push comes at an important moment in the pandemic. The country has a chance to crush the virus in the coming weeks, through a combination of vaccination, mask wearing and social distancing. Yet the spread of contagious new variants means that virus cases could surge instead, causing tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths. |
| In a worrisome sign, the number of new cases has stopped falling over the past week, in the U.S. and worldwide. We are now looking at the possibility of a fourth wave, as my colleague Apoorva Mandavilli explains in a new overview of the pandemic. |
| Private companies can play a big role in avoiding that new wave for two main reasons. |
| First, the companies have enormous resources at their disposal — buildings, technology and people for vaccination sites; money to spend on public-service messages; and more. A case study: Honeywell worked with local officials in North Carolina to deliver more than 1,500 vaccine shots per hour on two recent weekends. |
| Second, companies can sometimes break through partisan barriers that politicians cannot. Many Americans who won’t listen to Biden’s advice about mask wearing — or vaccine effectiveness — may listen to a colleague’s or boss’s advice. They may be willing to participate in a shared effort to protect their co-workers and community. Slavitt, the White House adviser, said he was hopeful that employers could make a particular difference in states that have not enacted mask mandates. |
| The message, he added, should be: “Wear a mask. Avoid crowds. And get vaccinated when it’s your turn.” |
| During our conversation, I asked Slavitt whether companies could not only influence people’s attitudes but also make a real difference in the speed at which Americans are vaccinated. The country has averaged about 1.5 million shots per day over the past week. My reporting suggests that the right goal is at least three million daily shots by April. |
| Slavitt didn’t sign on to that goal — “I don’t think we have a perfect answer to that question,” he said — but he didn’t reject it either. He noted that the peak number of flu vaccine shots in a normal year is around three million per day. |
| He also pointed out that Biden yesterday predicted that any adult who wanted a Covid vaccine would be able to get a shot within 60 to 90 days. That timetable suggests a pace of close to three million shots by early spring. And it will probably take private-sector efforts, like Honeywell’s, to make it happen. |
| Wartime metaphors are often overused. But in the case of Covid, it feels appropriate: People’s lives are at stake. |
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