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--:-- Host: President Biden continues to push private and public companies to require vaccines for all employees. I'm calling the more employers to act. My message is require your employees to get vaccinated. As vaccine mandates begin to take effect, thousands of employees are refusing. What will be the impact and will the country face major labor shortages? I'm John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, October 11th, and this is Morning Wire.
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--:-- Host: While the Biden administration has attempted to turn the page on Afghanistan, the humanitarian crisis in the country continues. With thousands of U.S. allies and citizens still trapped in Afghanistan, we'll discuss new reports of widespread violence and oppression by the Taliban. And as droves of office workers leave San Francisco, the city's downtown is struggling to bounce back from the pandemic's toll on what used to be a bustling atmosphere. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host: This show is sponsored by WyoTech. WyoTech, one of the nation's leading auto and diesel training schools, sees the trades as America's front lines. WyoTech is shaping young men, women, and veterans to build careers and businesses. America is built on the trades and WyoTech is leading the way in training. Visit wyotech.edu to subscribe and donate to the future technicians of America.
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--:-- Host: In recent weeks, vaccine mandates have been imposed by the federal government, as well as some state governments and private companies. But critics have pointed out that these requirements can have some negative outcomes, particularly in industries already dealing with critical staffing shortages. Here to tell us more is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, to put it bluntly, the consequences of the COVID-19 vaccine mandates are beginning to bubble to the surface. Seattle is just one example. The city's police force is already depleted after the Black Lives Matter riots and defund the police movement last year led to over 300 officers leaving for one reason or another. Now, the department is on the brink of firing up to 403 officers. That's about 40% of the entire police force if they fail to get vaccinated by October 18th. That would be a massive percentage of the force. Are they all refusing to take the vaccine?
--:-- Host: Well, according to the data I'm seeing, 292 officers have yet to provide proof of vaccination as of last week, and over 100 are waiting on results of various exemption requests. And this is just one of many examples of the immediate outcome of vaccine mandates, correct?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Oh, absolutely. Now, President Joe Biden is presenting mass vaccination as the, I guess, one remaining bottleneck when it comes to, as he puts it, beating this pandemic. And a big part of this is his renewed call for private employers to require all workers to be vaccinated. Without them, we face endless months of chaos in our hospitals, damage to our economy and anxiety in our schools, and empty restaurants, and much less commerce. But there are two counterpoints to Biden's argument. First over 216 million Americans have now received at least one dose while over 186 million people are fully vaccinated. When we consider that over 258 million people in the US are over 18 years old we understand that a pretty huge majority are already fully vaccinated. And second critics of the president are pointing out that forcing these vaccinations rather than encouraging them or leaving people to make their own medical decisions is actually doing significant harm to communities across the country.
--:-- Host: So we talked about the Seattle police force, but there are many other examples, such as hundreds of firefighters in LA threatening to sue the city over an upcoming vaccine deadline, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of US service members who are still not vaccinated. And then there's the healthcare field, which is being particularly heavily impacted, especially given that these same workers were celebrated as heroes during 2020.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, things have certainly changed. In New York, for example, the largest healthcare provider fired 1,400 workers just last week. And that was because they didn't get vaccinated, correct?
--:-- Host: Correct. And there could be thousands more. Last month, officials in New York said that 16% of the state's hospital workers, which is around 83,000 people, were at risk of being fired because they weren't fully vaccinated. Around half of these people hadn't even received a single dose. And then there's the travel industry, with people speculating that hundreds of delayed and canceled Southwest flights over the weekend were caused by labor action because of the vaccine mandates. And how have these vaccine mandates affected the airline industry beyond this speculation?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, most major carriers, as well as the largest pilots association, have confirmed that they will follow Biden's executive order requiring vaccines. And this is probably going to lead to hundreds of employees at each airline being fired if they don't get vaccinated. We should also remember that another piece of the puzzle here that most haven't really thought about is that some airlines have government contracts, so they're being pushed on multiple fronts to give in to D.C. And then there's the issue of mandating vaccines for travel more generally. Senator Dianne Feinstein, for example, has proposed legislation that would require proof of vaccination or a negative test to travel on domestic flights. Since polling seems to show that 7 in 10 U.S. flyers would support a vaccine mandate for travel, it's looking like vaccine mandates for more than just the workforce might be on the horizon.
--:-- Host: So we've got consequential industries, including the health industry and law enforcement, potentially unable to provide some services as a result of these mandates. Yeah. Thanks for the reporting, Ian.
--:-- Ian Howarth: You bet. Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
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--:-- Host: Coming up, we'll discuss the latest troubling reports out of Afghanistan. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be the first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news, and you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows. Download the Daily Wire app and keep up with the facts, no matter where your day takes you.
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--:-- Host: While President Biden has attempted to turn the page in Afghanistan, the crisis is still ongoing. Thousands of U.S. allies, citizens, and green card holders remain in the country. Meanwhile, we're getting more reports of violence and oppression, particularly against women and minority groups. Joining us to discuss the humanitarian crisis is someone who has done a lot of reporting on the ground in Afghanistan, journalist Lynn O'Donnell, former Afghanistan bureau chief for the Associated Press and AFP.
--:-- Lynn O'Donnell: Well, John, it's been really quite profound and changes are being felt at every level of life, especially for women, we can say. Women are being told that largely they can't go back to their jobs, that they have to wear specific clothing, that they can't go to school. Girls are no longer allowed to go to secondary school. Public universities purport to have started classes again but they do not include women and private universities are reluctant to allow girls into classes and women to teach. It across the board for the entire population. There's no access to cash through banks because all assets have been frozen by the United States and the international community. Food shortages are looming. Winter is closing in. The Taliban, of course, cannot pay the government's bills. So it's not paying the providers who are outside the country of power. And so people are without power for most of every day. And this will also very soon impact access to the internet and use of phones.
--:-- Host: Are there any signs of any improvement or is there any action that we're seeing from the Taliban to address some of these problems?
--:-- Lynn O'Donnell: No, we're hearing a lot of vacuous statements. But really what they're concentrating on is the minutiae of daily life, like what women wear and how men shave their beards or what haircuts they have. This is what they're concentrating on. They're not looking at larger governance issues. So the country is effectively not being run. And that flies in the face of their public rhetoric that they're not going to be as radical or authoritarian as they used to be.
--:-- Host: Are we seeing any changes in the Taliban from the 90s?
--:-- Lynn O'Donnell: We are seeing a difference in the Taliban now and the Taliban that ran badly, Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001. And that is that they've come in with a vengeance. So there is a revenge element and they are still hunting down people who worked for the previous government and their actions against ethnic groups, for instance, the Shia Hazara, just as if not more brutal. And so the difference is that they are, I think, on very many levels worse this time around.
--:-- Host: Yeah, we've seen reports that the Taliban unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras, including nine surrendering former government soldiers and a 17-year-old girl. Have you been hearing similar reports?
--:-- Lynn O'Donnell: Well, I have no doubt that Hazara people are being targeted by the Taliban regime. They have been in the past. They've been known to conduct mass executions of Hazara people who are Shia, whereas the Taliban are Sunni. And there is no difference this time. Hazara people are being forced out of their homes and off their land and into destitution and homelessness simply because they are Hazara. And there is nothing new in this experience for Hazara people. It's been happening to them for 100 years. They are marginalized and they are pretty much in the lowest demographic level of Afghan society. And they had very much expected that they would be targeted by the Taliban if they came to power.
--:-- Host: Just a really chaotic and critical situation there. Thanks so much for joining us today, Lynn.
--:-- Lynn O'Donnell: Thank you, John.
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--:-- Host: That was journalist Lynn O'Donnell. Downtown San Francisco is almost empty after droves of office workers left during the pandemic, fleeing high rents and strict lockdown rules. Now, residents are wondering if the city will ever bounce back. Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi has more on this for us.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So, Maraid, San Francisco seems like almost a shell of the city it was before the pandemic. What happened?
--:-- Host: Right. It's hard to overstate what's happened here. Before the pandemic, San Francisco had one of the most active downtown areas in the country. Now, though, local news reports describe San Francisco's financial district and south of Market neighborhood as almost like a ghost town. This is largely because as much as 90 percent of the city's workforce is now working from home. And it should be noted that the south of Market Neighborhood is home to the headquarters of a ton of prominent tech companies like Uber Dropbox Airbnb LinkedIn Pinterest Yelp and Salesforce So workers are either working from home or not even living in the city at all anymore.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: That's right. So before the pandemic, San Francisco had the highest building occupancy rate in the U.S., but now most of its skyscrapers have emptied out. In fact, about 27 percent of office space in the city is now listed as available. Compare that to 19% of available office space in Manhattan, which was also hit hard by the pandemic. Meanwhile, the cost of living in San Francisco remains high at 44% more than New York City. So, I mean, the expense is presumably a contributing factor for workers who want to work from outside the city.
--:-- Host: Exactly. A lot of major U.S. cities took a hit to their economy during the pandemic, but San Francisco has been hit particularly badly. The area's lockdown rules were some of the strictest in the country, plus several tech giants have announced that they're leaving California due to the high taxes, expensive real estate, and tight government regulation. On Thursday, Elon Musk announced that Tesla will move its headquarters out of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area to Austin, Texas. Oracle and Hewlett-Packard are also re-establishing their headquarters in Texas.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: So meanwhile, as tech workers migrate out of San Francisco, the city's downtown businesses are left wondering whether business will ever go back to normal. And speaking of small businesses, how are the restaurants handling it?
--:-- Host: Well, they're really struggling. Plus, bars and restaurants are still subject indefinitely to an indoor mask mandate in San Francisco. The city's current mask mandate will be lifted for other businesses like gyms, churches, and offices on October 15th, but that order does not apply to bars and restaurants. But San Francisco did pretty well comparatively when it comes to COVID. It has. Despite what the changes downtown might suggest, San Francisco didn't suffer a virus death toll at the level of hard hit cities like New York. Actually, it had the lowest COVID-19 death rate of any major U.S. city. Mayor London Breed boasted in January during her State of the City address. San Francisco's response to COVID-19 has been hailed as a national model. So while the city seems to have done pretty well with COVID itself, we'll have to see if it can recover from the economic toll the pandemic has inflicted.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Yeah, it really has.
--:-- Host: Maraid, thanks so much.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Anytime.
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--:-- Host: Other stories we're tracking this week. California is now the first state to mandate gender-neutral displays and marketing in some areas of large department stores. While the new law, signed by Governor Newsom, does allow for boys and girls sections, it mandates that stores also maintain a gender-neutral section with a, quote, reasonable selection of items. The law only applies to toys and child care items like toothbrushes and shampoo, and only applies to stores with at least 500 employees.
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--:-- Host: And abortion is once again illegal in the state of Texas once a fetal heartbeat is detected. After a brief stay on the Texas abortion ban, a federal appeals court reinstated the ban on Friday, just days after a lower court paused the pro-life law.
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--:-- Host: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening and give us a five-star review. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know. If you like this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe.
