The ESG Weekly: Vaccine Mandates and Walmart's Insulin

Some companies are mandating their employees be vaccinated against COVID‐19 if they want to continue working at the company. The idea sort of seems like a mandatory health and safety procedure, albeit one with a bit more controversy surrounding it than others. Still, the companies that have a fully vaccinated workforce may be in a better place come winter than those without. We discuss how vaccine mandates are similar to the proactive health and safety policies implemented at companies in more traditionally dangerous industries. Then we ask whether Walmart has become a social impact company with its new relatively low cost insulin product offered to uninsured Americans.