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Fact Check: Supply Chain Delays Not Related to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

Fact Check: Supply Chain Delays Not Related to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
Fact Check: Supply Chain Delays Not Related to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
October 26, 2021   //   USA Today

By Daniel Funke

The claim: Resistance to COVID-19 vaccine mandates is responsible for supply chain backups

Ice cream, books and Christmas trees could all be in short supply soon due to a complex combination of rising consumer demand, labor shortages and decreased production capacity worldwide.

But online, some blame COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

“Trucker’s (sic) that refuse the Jab have refused to drive into mandate states and cities… this is why the ports, rail, and warehouses are all backed up,” reads text in an Oct. 13 Facebook post. “The ‘shipping crisis’ is a crisis because those ports and rail terminals are in Blue States.”

The post is a screenshot of an Oct. 10 post from Joyce Bowen on Gab, a social media platform popular with conservatives. Bowen told USA TODAY in a message she copied the text from a comment by user Paul Todd.

“1.4 million of the 3 million truck drivers, including the trucking company I owns (sic), simply drive elsewhere,” the text reads. “News won’t talk about it, but I’m giving you first hand knowledge of what’s happening and why shortages are happening.”

In early September, President Joe Biden announced all employers with more than 100 workers would have to require COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing. Some cities with large ports, such as Los Angeles, also require vaccination to enter public spaces.

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Big trucking companies have spoken out, saying vaccine requirements could potentially push truckers away and worsen supply chain woes. But experts say local, state and federal mandates are not responsible for current nationwide shipping delays.

“The online claim is too strong,” John Macdonald, associate professor of supply chain management and logistics at Colorado State University, said in an email. “Drivers from companies I contacted have had no challenges fulfilling their job duties due to vaccination status.”

USA TODAY reached out to Todd and the Facebook user who shared the post for comment.

Delays due to rising demand, production constraints

The reasons for the current supply chain problems in the U.S. predate the Biden administration’s recent COVID-19 vaccine requirements. There’s no evidence local or state mandates have contributed to delays, either.

“I have seen nothing to suggest that vaccine mandates are to blame for supply chain backups,” David Correll, co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s FreightLab, said in an email. “The available supply of both truck drivers and warehouse and dock workers was already considered ‘short’ long before COVID wreaked havoc on our supply chains.”

As of 2019, more than 3.5 million Americans worked as truck drivers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with self-employed truckers making up about 29% of the truck transportation industry. But now, the industry is short tens of thousands of drivers.

Opposition to coronavirus vaccine mandates is not thought to be a contributing factor.

Fact check: Photos of bare, fully stocked grocery store shelves shared online to support false claim

Norita Taylor, director of public relations for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told USA TODAY in an email that the group has “not heard of any such mandates or connections to (the) bottleneck.” Experts who study logistics and freight transportation also say the Facebook post is baseless.

“I have not heard anywhere that there is a widespread movement among truckers to avoid locations that have vaccine mandates as a matter of local or state policy,” Steve Tracey, executive director of the Center for Supply Chain Research at Pennsylvania State University, said in an email. “If this were true, I’d have to assume it would be widely distributed information among reputable industry-focused trucking media outlets – it isn’t.”

The reason for supply chain snags across the country has to do with the economic effects of COVID-19.

During the height of the pandemic, consumer spending dropped by record numbers. As more Americans got vaccinated and ventured outside their homes, spending ticked back up. Now, retail sales continue to rise.

The result: an overwhelmed supply chain.

“Over the last 20-30 years, the global logistics and manufacturing industries – much of the manufacturing off-shore in low wage countries – have been well-tuned to keep costs down, resulting in a very lean, efficient, and low-cost system,” Chip White, a professor and transportation and logistics expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said in an email. “However, lean systems don’t react well to disruptions, and COVID has provided major disruptions in supply, labor, and demand worldwide.”

A backlog of cargo at West Coast ports, staffing gaps in the logistics industry, container shortages and rising shipping costs have all contributed to supply chain problems. Further upstream, there are production cutbacks in countries like China, which has been grappling with a far-reaching power shortage.

Fact check: Image is from Australian refugee incident in 2001

“To better cope with these disruptions, our global supply chains now need to be more resilient and agile, which requires additional buffer manufacturing capacity, freight transportation – rail, trucking and drivers – and warehousing, and inventory levels throughout the supply chain,” White said, “all which costs money and will require time to implement.”

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that resistance to COVID-19 vaccine mandates is responsible for supply chain backups. Experts say local, state and federal mandates are not responsible for current nationwide shipping delays. The supply chain problems are due to a combination of rising consumer demand, production constraints, cargo backlogs and labor shortages around the world.

Our fact-check sources:

A backlog of cargo at West Coast ports, staffing gaps in the logistics industry, container shortages and rising shipping costs have all contributed to supply chain problems. Further upstream, there are production cutbacks in countries like China, which has been grappling with a far-reaching power shortage.

Fact check: Image is from Australian refugee incident in 2001

“To better cope with these disruptions, our global supply chains now need to be more resilient and agile, which requires additional buffer manufacturing capacity, freight transportation – rail, trucking and drivers – and warehousing, and inventory levels throughout the supply chain,” White said, “all which costs money and will require time to implement.”

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that resistance to COVID-19 vaccine mandates is responsible for supply chain backups. Experts say local, state and federal mandates are not responsible for current nationwide shipping delays. The supply chain problems are due to a combination of rising consumer demand, production constraints, cargo backlogs and labor shortages around the world.

Our fact-check sources:

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