By Natalie Sherman
Business reporter in New York.
The caption is media.
Danielle Thornton is one of thousands of Americans who have lost their jobs because they didn't get a Covid-19 jab.
Danielle Thornton was in the school pick up line waiting for her children when she learned she would have to choose between getting the Covid-19 vaccine or losing her job at Citigroup.
She and her husband were aware that the family could face this moment as bosses across the US introduced vaccine mandates. She received an email on her phone.
She says they had many conversations about it. We decided that our freedom was more important than a pay cheque.
Thousands of people across America are opting to lose their jobs rather than take the Covid-19 jabs.
They are a small minority. About a third of the country's biggest companies and 15% of small businesses have introduced such rules.
More than 99% of the US staff at Citi have received the shots, which are the best way to prevent serious infections.
Mandates are seen as key to pushing America's 25% unvaccinated to get the jabs, but face stiff resistance across the country, where many see them clashing with cherished national ideals of personal freedom and privacy.
The Supreme Court rejected a rule from President Joe Biden that would have required at least 100 people at a workplace to get a vaccine or be tested weekly at their own expense.
The judges at the nation's top court said the regulation was a significant encroachment on the lives of millions of workers, eliminating the likelihood of national rules like those in Germany.
US courts have been more accepting of states and businesses introducing requirements on their own.
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There is opposition to the mandates in Republican red states.
More than a third of workers are opposed to employer vaccine mandates, according to a December Gallup poll.
Thousands of people marched in New York City against state requirements. The city expanded the rule to private employers and put 9000 city workers on leave as the mandate kicked in.
"I don't believe in the government's right to dictate things that are between a human being and their creator," says Donna, who lives on Long Island and worked as a neo-natal nurse for 30 years before stopping due to the vaccine requirements.
She objected to the vaccine for religious and personal reasons. She is re-inventing herself as an activist, and she is organizing a group of people against medical mandates.
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Donna said she had no second thoughts about giving up her job.
There was no second thought. She says that what there has been is grieving. Being restricted by a government entity to say "You no longer have a place here" is hard.
Danielle, who worked for Citigroup from Missouri as an operational risk manager, says she is not a political person and is not against vaccines.
The mother of four who got Covid last year before the shots were widely available was unwilling to get a jab that didn't seem to be getting rid of the virus.
She gave up her job without any plans to get another, because she is in a good financial position.
She didn't seek a religious or medical exemption.
She says she should have the right to choose. There's a lot of emotions. It's a big change for our family.
Companies with vaccine mandates credit their policies with persuading staff to get the shot.
In August, Tyson Foods instituted a requirement for all of its US workforce to sign up, calling it the "most effective thing we can do to protect our team members".
According to the chief executive of United Airlines, his firm's policy has reduced the number of staff going to the hospital.
He wrote in a memo to staff that United is proving that requiring the vaccine is the right thing to do because it saves lives.
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Despite the Supreme Court's decision, Jane Fraser went ahead with the vaccine mandate for the bank's 6,500 US staff.
There are compelling financial and operational reasons for companies to insist. Unvaccinated people are more likely to miss work due to illness, and health costs are higher for them.
Most of the people affected work in offices or Democratic states, which are more likely to have received the shots already. According to Gallup, only 5% of unvaccinated Americans face employer mandates.
The US has a higher percentage of people who are "fully vaccine" than the UK.
A vaccine mandate would have the most impact on lower- wage and lower-educated workers, but it would also create the most tension because the largest number of people would need to get vaccine.
According to Gallup, the share of Americans required by their employers to be inoculated was about a third before the Supreme Court ruling.
Starbucks has since walked back their plans.
According to Emily Dickens, head of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management, businesses are worried about the costs of compliance and staff shortages in a historically hot labour market.
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Covid-19 vaccine requirements have sparked protests all over the world.
She says that this is about talent and access to workplace talent. "Telling people they have to be vaccine free might not work in the industry."
As Covid-19 continues to resist containment, it may force company hands.
He says that employer vaccine mandates do work to get to near universal rates of vaccination. "Now that we have a variant, Omicron, that is so contagious, that's what we need if we want to not have community outbreaks."
They are companies.
The US economy.
There are vaccines for coronaviruses.
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