This is where business and law intersect, and not peacefully.

If you’re following the news, and most people are not, at best they’re hung up on opinions, which are a dime a dozen and often removed from the facts, you know that Norwegian Cruise Line is in a kerfuffle with the state of Florida. Ron DeSantis, the governor of the Sunshine State, who recently signed a “voting rights” law that he only allowed Fox News to cover, has also banned vaccine passports. But Norwegian wants them, because of the liability, because it doesn’t want to sacrifice its business. Norwegian is threatening to pull all its ships from Florida, which 60% of all U.S. cruises embark from, and the resulting economic devastation and blowback from hoteliers and restaurants…will be loud and proud, just like it was from these same outlets, especially restaurants, when governors insisted they close.

Now if you want to be really depressed, you should listen to Friday’s “The Daily” podcast:

“Why Herd Immunity Is Slipping Away”: https://bit.ly/33snFjE

As a result of covid variants, we now need 90% of the population inoculated to achieve herd immunity. The variants are more aggressive, spreading faster and further, and therefore the old figure of a year ago, of 50-60%, no longer applies. But a huge swath of the American population refuses to get the shot, most basing their decision on inaccurate fears, but there will be consequences. Not only in the lack of herd immunity, but the inability of these same people to live their lives as they want to.

If you listen to Frank Luntz on Kara Swisher’s “Sway” podcast, you’ll learn that he believes it’s just a matter of terminology. And one must listen to the pollster who changed estate taxes to “death taxes” and so much more. Luntz says we must stop calling them vaccine PASSPORTS, because the word “passport” has such a negative connotation, most people don’t have passports and don’t go anywhere, and call them vaccine VERIFICATIONS!

Hmm… On the surface it sounds good. But in truth would this really change the thoughts of the reluctant?

I don’t think so. But it would be worth trying.

Now the last time I checked, they called it the music BUSINESS. And even nonprofits have cash running through them. And Live Nation is a public company, and just like Norwegian Cruise Line, Live Nation cannot put its entire business in jeopardy. Bottom line, if you want to go to the show, you’re gonna have to show proof of vaccination. Definitely.

You’ve probably noticed that concert companies have yet to address this issue, because they’re fearful of pissing off potential customers, becoming the “enemy.” But the day is going to soon arrive, where these promoters are going to want to shove anywhere from 75 to 60,000 people in a venue, and if even one person attending is infected with covid, even if they are showing no symptoms, what you’ve got on your hands is a superspreader event. You can’t social distance at a show. At least not profitably. In order for the concert business to work everybody needs to be up close and personal. SO THEN WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE 30+ PERCENT WHO REFUSE TO BE VACCINATED!

We’re about to experience a two-tiered society. And it won’t be driven by woke liberals, but businesses, who refuse to put their enterprise on the line. Also, if a business is not woke to a degree, it’s castigated and a large segment of the population protests against it, sometimes just with their voices, but sometimes with their feet too. This is why corporations are standing up against restrictive voting laws in Georgia and Texas, they’re fearful of pissing off the majority of the population, the same majority which voted Biden into office, despite the delusional beliefs otherwise.

So now you’ve got the corporations on the side of the woke and vaccinated. Let me see…who is on the other side? In the past it was said corporations, afraid to take a side on anything, wary of even one phone call or e-mail from an outraged parent, but now it’s just Rupert Murdoch and his apparatchiks, most vocally Tucker Carlson, who is driving his minions into the river under the banner of “freedom.”

So what we’re heading towards is another January 6th upheaval/uprising/protest/conflagration, when the “free” people find out that their viewpoint has closed doors to them. Yes, this is going to happen. Arguments about masks at retail establishments? That’ll be nothing compared to concerts and cruises and other mass events, a battle is brewing. Only in this case, the battle is not with the government, not even the “libtards,” just corporations.

Have you ever worked for the corporation? They’ve got legal staff, either in-house or outside counsel, always on call, ready to deal with lawsuits. Operate a business, and you’re gonna get sued. Many are nuisance suits, insane trolls looking for money, and unfortunately sometimes it’s cheaper to settle than to fight, but a good number of these lawsuits are genuine. This is the tort world that the right keeps denigrating. But these lawsuits are what keep the rest of us safe. In cars…all over our country. I was in Colombia and I tripped on a jagged upraised curb. The truth is unsafe curbs are in the minority in America, because the city or building owner is wary of getting sued.

But you have insurance!

No carrier is going to write insurance against lawsuits from concertgoers saying they got covid. How do you even calculate the risk?

So this is what is going to happen… More people are going to get vaccinated. Because your principles are secondary to your desires. I’ll take it to the zenith, I’ve got more than one Catholic friend who was anti-abortion until their sister got pregnant. So, you can rail against vaccine passports/verifications all you want, but when you want to go on the cruise, when you want to go to the concert, you’re gonna get one.

This is going to come into focus when the country truly reopens. Right now with so many places still shut down, with people afraid to go to even open places, the issue has not come clear, but it soon will. And then? 

We’ve heard from the outraged public, not wanting their bodies “violated,” but we have not heard yet from most businesses where people are packed tight. Concerts were amongst the first businesses to shut down, and will be amongst the last to open back up. Because of the RISK!

We live in a society where everybody believes in strict liability. If I lose, it must be someone’s fault, and they must pay, this is the mind-set, not only of the liberals but the conservatives. You sue your neighbor when you slip in their house, you assume they have insurance for this sort of thing. And many people do, but not all. And the truth is the system is not one of strict liability, you don’t always recover, so you have personal responsibility, however…

You can be drunk and drive your car off a cliff, but GM can’t make an unsafe car that inherently puts you at risk.

Live Nation can have security at the show but it can’t ensure that you don’t take a drug at home and O.D. at the concert.

In other words, at some point it truly does become an issue of personal responsibility. You want to do what makes you safest. And the enterprise wants to do that which absolves it of liability, because it doesn’t want to take the financial hit, never mind the bad publicity.

And the government has a responsibility to keep its citizens safe too. Look at that Chainsmokers show last year on Long Island, the organizers were fined! Don’t enforce strict covid rules and the government is gonna keep you in line. Even Florida. Never underestimate the duplicity of governments, they’re just run by people. Sure, Florida can say no vaccine passports are required, but as soon as people get infected at a show…they’re not going to say it’s their own damn fault, politicians are afraid to say this.

So, ultimately the decision whether to get vaccinated is a personal one. And what I mean by that is the tribe won’t save you if you get infected and die.

As for death… Even the experts said deaths would hover in the neighborhood of 1%. So sure, you got covid and didn’t die. But half a million people did. As for the long term consequences of infection…every day there are articles talking about the hidden effects, now it’s diabetes.

It could be the most powerful person in the battle for covid vaccinations is Michael Rapino. And Rapino has historically been willing to hang it out there alone, to say and do the right thing. Will all the smaller promoters let him take the risk? Unfortunately, probably. But if the concert business were smart, it would form a coalition today, insisting that all concertgoers be vaccinated. In this way they would be spreading the risk/attention of said declaration. You might hate Live Nation or AEG or whomever, but can you hate ALL CONCERT COMPANIES??

Just like you can hate all cruise companies?

Bookings are way up for 2022, people are “dying” to go on a cruise. And cruises can be very cheap vacations. Which is one of the reasons why they’ve boomed in the past two decades, they’re not only for the rich, as a matter of fact their inclusive nature at rock bottom prices appeals to…many of those who refuse to be vaccinated.

Let the games begin.

“Cruise Line Threatens to Skip Florida Ports Over Proof-of-Vaccination Ban – Norwegian Cruise Line plans to require Covid-19 vaccine documentation from its crew members and customers, but Florida recently enacted a law that bars businesses from doing so.”: https://nyti.ms/3hdFXNZ