Business plays a key role in trust
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Business plays a key role in trust
And thus, a big role in this respiratory season.
Trust in institutions is declining across the globe. However, one group, particularly in the U.S., has seen a significant increase in trust: businesses. (This is true across all generations except Gen Z.)
Most employees look to their employers for reliable information: those who say business should deliver more healthcare access and trustworthy information far outnumber those who say business is overstepping.
In other words, businesses are “trusted messengers” to communities.
And for a good reason: people trust who they know. Businesses showed up during the pandemic. They became a key source of information, many recognized the importance of mental health, and some have remained flexible and responsive to employee needs.
Partnering with businesses can make the traditional public health world uneasy. While some businesses do it out of the kindness of their hearts, there is obviously a clear business case for public health action (see more below).
That’s okay. A healthy community is a healthy economy and vice versa. Public health can partner by equipping trusted messengers, like businesses, with the tools, education, and evidence-based resources.
We should start with the current respiratory season.
The business case for public health action
McKinsey estimated that Covid-19 illness was responsible for losing 315 million to 1 billion employee workdays in 2022 alone. Coupled with flu and RSV, work absences because of childcare constraints were at all-time high last year. This impacts productivity, turnover, and burnout.
None of this is going away. Public health action can help. For example:
Increasing vaccine coverage: Flu vaccines reduced work sick days by 1-3 days. In the UK, if 1000 employees are vaccinated for the flu, a business reduces absenteeism by 220 days and should expect a return of £1.03-£5.15 on every pound invested by an employer (depending on the severity of the flu that year).
Upgrade ventilation systems: In a study of 4,000 employees in over 40 buildings, twice as much clean air reduced sick leave by 35%. By investing $40 per person per year to double the ventilation rate, employers can recoup $6,000-$7,000 per person per year in higher productivity.
So, where do businesses start?
Three key areas:
Build conviction: Educate on the facts. Engage with champions. Approach information apolitically, base actions on science, and act on the same values over time.
Increase convenience and eliminate cost: Nearly 1 in 2 employees state that initiatives targeting convenience and cost would significantly increase their likelihood of getting vaccinated. We see this play out in studies, like providing workers with paid time off to receive Covid-19 vaccines and to recover from potential vaccine adverse effects.
This could look like many things: pop-up vaccine clinics on campuses, paid time off to get vaccinated, ventilation upgrades, mask-friendly environments, a strategy for communication with the workforce, or even just a poster in the bathroom (like this photo someone sent me of an eerily familiar poster).
Need more ideas or support?
This Thursday, I am joining Dr. David Michaels (longest serving Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA), the Health Action Alliance, Ad Council, and CDC Foundation for a business solution-oriented discussion for this upcoming respiratory season.
It’s free and open to anyone! If you attend, you’ll also have access to a document we put together: Breathe Easy: 4 Steps to Respiratory Wellness at Work. (I’m biased, but I think it’s pretty great.)
Bottom line
To strive for a healthier community, an all-hands-on-deck response is required. Businesses are key partners in public health, as they are trusted messengers for many communities. Energy is wisely spent equipping them with tools and information so employees can make evidence-based decisions and live healthier lives.
Love, YLE
“Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)” is written by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH Ph.D.—an epidemiologist, wife, and mom of two little girls. During the day, she is a senior scientific consultant to several organizations, including the CDC. At night she writes this newsletter. Her main goal is to “translate” the ever-evolving public health world so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support this effort, subscribe below:
Business plays a key role in trust
I’m happy to see that some corporations are stepping in with good corporate citizenship and leadership, especially in areas with vacuums of governance related to deregulation and defunding of oversight.
But I really do think it is sad when people trust antigovernment politicians and businesses more than constructive politicians who sincerely try to help with good government, and professionals who spend their lives honing skills and knowledge that is not just grounded in economics and profit. As a family doctor I’m biased and sensitive I guess.
People first over profits. I’m glad many businesses care about both. But by definition corporations must care about profits first to stay alive. And politicians who undermine and destroy institutions like the CDC and EPA are riding a dangerous wave of misguided populism, and will ride us to the ground.
Cheers to the corporations and businesses who are protecting people, motives and agendas notwithstanding…
Business in Florida, including schools, cannot require masking and cannot inact any Covid mitigation policies because our governor made it illegal. We will not see another mask mandate or better ventilation in schools or business here. If he could have DeathSantis would have made the vaccines illegal.
Business care about their bottom line but they don't see health care as part of that for the most part anyway. I don't trust businesses to protect workers because most business models rely on worker exploitation in the first place. Business that were considered "essential" didn't give their employees hazard pay and many were left entirely unprotected. The vast majority of restaurant workers don't even have the option for health insurance and are punished for being sick and forced to work sick.
Hospital staff aren't even masking anymore. I have taken my mom in for several procedures and I was one of the only people masking and even when they saw my mask the nurses never offered to mask themselves. It's disgusting and disgraceful.
We've sacrificed public health so that people could "go back to normal" and for the economy. All the people disabled by repeat infections and Long Covid won't be able to keep working. This economic growth comes at a cost I'm not willing to pay. Vulnerable communities can no longer safely participate in public life. I'm tired of being a hostage in my own home because I can't safely go out in public. I mask when I have to go out and due to PTSD I cannot mask for more than an hour at a time without it triggering panic attacks. I no longer see a future where I will ever be comfortable in public spaces again because high-risk and older populations have been deemed expendable.
It makes me sad and sick to see even people like yourself praising these policies that are not good for large parts of the population.