Whirlpool will pays $1,000 to workers for getting vaccinated: Report

Whirlpool had previously offered $200 in May which has now been increased to $1,000 cash bonus for getting the jab

Moneycontrol News

September 14, 2021 / 10:25 AM IST

Representative picture: AFP

Appliance maker Whirlpool is offering cash bonuses for getting vaccinated against COVID-19 as cases surge in the United States. The company had previously offered $200 in May which has now been increased to $1,000 cash bonus for getting the jab, Bloomberg reported.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

“The health and safety of our employees around the world remain our top priority – we know that we couldn’t do any of this without their tireless commitment,” Marc Bitzer Chairman and CEO of Whirlpool had said in a statement.

“We have implemented the proper safeguards in our plants in line with the guidelines provided by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and other health organizations around the world, and continuously monitor and adjust on a daily basis. This includes heightened cleaning protocols, increased distances on our production lines and making the decision to slow production lines down or reduce lines as needed, and emphasizing proper hygiene in the plants, including use of frequent hand washing while ensuring our employees have proper sanitization equipment,” he added.

Other companies including Devon Energy Corp and Bolthouse Farms have also offered $500 cash bonus for employees who get vaccinated.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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