President Joe Biden talks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Thursday, September 9, 2021. In an all-out effort to promote COVID-19 vaccines and prevent the growing delta variant, Biden is introducing sweeping new federal vaccine mandates that could affect up to 100 million Americans. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – President Joe Biden issued sweeping new federal vaccine mandates for as many as 100 million Americans on Thursday, including private-sector employees, health-care professionals, and federal contractors, in an all-out effort to halt the spread of the COVID-19 delta strain.
Despite months of availability and incentives, tens of millions of Americans have not yet been vaccinated, according to Biden, who spoke at the White House.
“We've waited patiently. But our patience is becoming thin, and your refusal has cost us all,” he added, his words almost gnawing at him. The unvaccinated minority “can and do inflict a lot of harm.”
Biden went too far in trying to bully private companies and workers, according to Republican leaders — and some union bosses, too, indicating that legal challenges are on the way.
“Biden and the radical Democrats (have) thumbed their noses at the Constitution,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said in a statement, while American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley insisted that “changes like this should be negotiated with our bargaining units where appropriate.”
The American Medical Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable, on the other hand, all praised Biden's efforts to get the country vaccinated, albeit there was no mention of his mandate for private enterprises.
The laws required that all firms with more than 100 employees be vaccinated or tested for the virus on a weekly basis, affecting around 80 million Americans. In addition, the roughly 17 million workers who receive federal Medicare or Medicaid will be required to be completely vaccinated.
Employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government will also be required to be vaccinated, with no choice to opt out. Several million more people are covered by this.
In a Thursday afternoon address from the White House, Biden revealed the new restrictions as part of a new "action plan" to address the recent surge in coronavirus cases and the slow pace of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Biden announced the country's "independence" from the virus just two months ago. Despite the fact that more than 208 million Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, the United States is experiencing almost 300 percent more new COVID-19 infections every day, nearly twice as many hospitalizations, and nearly twice as many deaths than at the same time last year. There are an estimated 80 million people who have not been vaccinated.
“We are in a difficult period, and it may persist for a long time,” Biden remarked.
After months of promoting vaccinations, Biden is taking a tougher stance, blaming people who have not yet had injections for the rapid increase in infections, which are killing over 1,000 people per day and jeopardizing the fragile economic recovery.
In addition to the immunization restrictions, Biden proposed doubling government fines for airline customers who refuse to wear masks on flights or follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines for face covering on federal property.
He stated that the government will try to enhance the supply of virus tests, and that the White House has obtained concessions from retailers such as Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger to begin selling at-home testing kits at cost this week.
Additionally, the administration is sending additional government support, including additional funds for testing, to help schools operate safely. Large entertainment venues and arenas, according to Biden, should demand vaccines or confirmation of a negative test for admittance.
A future rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require large employers to demand vaccines or weekly testing for employees, with penalties of $14,000 per infraction, according to an administration official.
Large corporations will be required to grant paid time off for vaccinations under the rule.
Meanwhile, the Clinics for Medicare & Medicaid Services will expand a vaccination requirement for nursing home personnel that was implemented earlier this summer to include hospitals, home health agencies, and dialysis centers.
Separately, the Department of Health and Human Services will require vaccines in Head Start Programs, as well as Department of Defense and Bureau of Indian Education schools, affecting around 300,000 personnel.
According to press secretary Jen Psaki, Biden's order for executive branch employees and contractors provides provisions for anyone seeking religious or medical exemptions from immunization. Noncompliant federal employees will be referred to their agencies' human resources departments for counseling and disciplinary action, which could include termination.
According to an AP-NORC study conducted in August, 55 percent of Americans support requiring government workers to be completely vaccinated, while only 21% oppose it. Vaccine mandates for health care professionals, teachers in K-12 schools, and individuals who deal with the public, such as in restaurants and stores, were also endorsed by similar majorities.
In institutions like schools, businesses, and university campuses, Biden has pushed for COVID-19 vaccine requirements. The Los Angeles Board of Education voted on Thursday to require all children 12 and older in the nation's second-largest school system to be fully vaccinated.
Walmart, the country's largest private employer, said in late July that all employees at its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, as well as its supervisors who travel within the United States, must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 4. However, the corporation had refrained from demanding vaccinations for its front-line employees.
In late August, CVS Health announced that certain personnel who interface with patients would be required to be completely vaccinated by the end of October. Nurses, care managers, and pharmacists are among those who fall into this category.
Several federal agencies, notably those in healthcare responsibilities like the Department of Veterans Affairs, have previously announced vaccine mandates for much of their workforce, and the Pentagon moved last month to require all servicemembers to get vaccinated. The White House believes that these rules will affect 2.5 million Americans. Nearly 2 million additional federal employees and potentially millions of contractors are expected to be affected by Thursday's decree.
Biden's actions should help, but what's really needed, according to Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, deputy dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, is a shift in thinking for many people.
“There is now an aspect to it that has to do with our country being so divided,” Sharfstein explained. “This has become so political that people are unable to recognize the significance of a vaccine that could save their lives. We can't stop a pandemic because of our own divisions.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 177 million Americans are completely vaccinated against the coronavirus, yet confirmed cases have risen to an average of nearly 140,000 per day in recent weeks, with an average of around 1,000 deaths.
The vast majority of cases of serious sickness and death are among people who have not yet been properly vaccinated. In vaccinated persons, so-called breakthrough infections sometimes occur, although they are usually much less serious.
Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services are going forward with plans to begin delivering mRNA vaccine booster doses to increase protection against the more transmissible delta version. Biden announced intentions to make them available on Sept. 20 last month, but only the Pfizer vaccine is expected to have gotten regulatory approval for a third dose by then.
The booster doses will be given roughly eight months following the second dose of the two-dose immunizations, according to officials.
The organization of the union official in the fifth paragraph is corrected in this tale.
Anne D'Innocenzio, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, and Hannah Fingerhut of the Associated Press contributed to this story.
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