Our guest today is Chef Tony Cochones, Vice President of Culinary Operations for Glory Days Grill. Tony has been with Glory Days for almost 20 years. Prior to that, he worked for Superstar Chef Todd English. Chef Tony will share more with us about his journey with Glory Days and his personal journey through COVID.
Yes. If you’re in an area with a high transmission rate (which covers most of the US), you should wear a mask when indoors outside of your home whether you’re vaccinated or not. While many of our clients never lifted mask requirements (which made this change easier for them), most others are returning to masking for all employees whether or not they are vaccinated. We recommend that you require masks for everyone.
No! This is a common misconception that we’re seeing, and it’s dangerous because anyone who is COVID+ can spread COVID, even if they’re vaccinated. The latest studies show that once someone has COVID, they’re transmitting the virus at similar levels whether unvaccinated or vaccinated. It doesn’t mean that vaccines don’t work (they do, really well), or that those people are the same level of sick (they’re not - they’re having much milder symptoms), but it does mean that they need to self-isolate and you need to conduct full contact tracing to prevent an outbreak. Again, everyone who tests positive or develops COVID symptoms, whether or not they are vaccinated, must isolate for 10 days.
Although we do keep hearing about breakthrough cases, breakthroughs are expected and represent about 0.098% of those fully vaccinated. The risk of getting severely ill from COVID-19 after receiving a vaccine is low. And although hospitals are filling up, patients being admitted are overwhelmingly unvaccinated. According to the NY Times’ recent deep dive into breakthrough case data, fully vaccinated people have made up 0.1% - 5% of those hospitalized and 0.2% - 6% of those who have died in the 25 states reporting breakthrough data. To get a better sense for how this works, we liked this New York Times visualization of how vaccines make an impact on the spread of the Delta variant.
So although we do keep hearing about and know people with breakthrough cases, there aren’t that many breakthrough cases overall, and the vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death.
Although no two companies are alike or have identical decisions or decision making processes, we are hearing similar discussions among the executive teams across our client base. Where just a week ago, discussions were centered on when to require masks, the conversation has refocused on the daily expansion of vaccine and mask mandates as the Delta variant surges. Where corporate vaccine mandates were being discussed for executive offices or support centers, company-wide vaccine requirements weren’t on the table two weeks or a month ago and now are.
Tracking and complying with the rapidly changing requirements is more challenging than ever for our clients and there isn’t a one size fits all solution for business. From NYC’s single dose requirement, to Philly and SF’s two doses, and testing in some places for those who can’t be or aren’t vaccinated, this pandemic is even more complicated than even last week.
