Timothy L. O'Brien, Columnist

Southwest and American Are Making a Dangerous Mandate Mistake

The airlines are spinelessly softening their original demands that all employees be inoculated against Covid-19.

October 20, 2021 at 9:30 AM UTC

Timothy L. O'Brien is senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. A former editor and reporter for the New York Times, he is author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.”

Going soft on the company’s vaccine mandate.
Photographer: Jason Janik/Bloomberg

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Covid-19 vaccine mandates are only as good as the people enforcing them.

And it seems the executives running Southwest Airlines Co. and American Airlines Inc. could use more backbone. For inspiration, they can look to United Airlines Inc.’s managers, or to mayors, governors and college presidents around the country.