Vaccine carrots only got us so far — now, it’s time for sticks

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This week, the dam broke. With COVID-19 surging around the United States and vaccination rates stagnating, federal agencies and state governments started announcing vaccine mandates for their workers. The Department of Veterans Affairs was the first federal agency to introduce a mandate, and Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that all federal employees would have to be vaccinated or face testing and other protocols. New York City and Los Angeles will also require city workers to get vaccinated. Private companies are doing the same. Google said Wednesday that employees would have to be vaccinated to come to the office, and Facebook and Lyft followed with their own announcements hours later. Some New York City restaurants are... Continue reading…