Vaccinated consumers will fuel the economy's boom eventually — just not quite yet
CBSN
Since vaccines against the coronavirus first became available last fall, mass vaccinations have been held up as the one and only way to get consumers to bring back the consumer economy.
But early financial data shows vaccinated Americans are not spending money at pre-pandemic levels. Instead, the consumers who've spent the most money this year are those who haven't been vaccinated, and don't plan to be, according to spending data from Cardify.ai, a rewards platform that tracks consumers' credit-card spending. The company last month asked its roughly 1 million members about their vaccine status, and then mapped the answers of the 1,600 who responded to their spending on entertainment, dining out and personal services (a category that includes salons and barbershops).Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.