Sweeping new vaccine mandates for 100 million Americans

WASHINGTON (AP):

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced sweeping new federal vaccine requirements affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and curb the surging Delta variant that is killing thousands each week and jeopardising the nation’s economic recovery.

The expansive rules mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.

Biden is also signing an executive order to require vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government – with no option to test out. That covers several million more workers.

Just two months ago, Biden prematurely declared the nation’s “independence” from the virus. Now, despite more than 208 million Americans having at least one dose of the vaccines, the US is seeing about 300 per cent more new COVID-19 infections a day, about two and a half times more hospitalisations, and nearly twice the number of deaths, compared to the same time last year.

After months of using promotions to drive the vaccination rate, Biden is taking a much firmer hand, as his aides blame people who have not yet received shots for the sharp rise in cases that is killing more than 1,000 people per day and imperilling a fragile economic rebound.

Whitehouse press secretary, Jen Psaki said Biden’s “overarching objective here is to reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans,” noting that about 80 million adults remain unvaccinated.

A DROP IN SUPPORT

An AP-NORC poll conducted in August found that 54 per cent of Americans approved of Biden’s stewardship of the public health crisis, down from 66 per cent the month before, driven by a drop in support from Republicans and political independents.

In addition to the vaccination requirements, Biden is moving to double federal fines for airline passengers who refuse to wear masks on flights or to maintain face-covering requirements on federal property, in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The requirement for large companies to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing for employees will be enacted through a forthcoming rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that carries penalties of $14,000 per violation, an administration official said. The White House did not immediately say when it would take effect, but said workers would have sufficient time to get vaccinated.

Biden’s order for executive branch workers and contractors includes exceptions for workers seeking religious or medical exemptions from vaccination, according to Psaki. Federal workers and contractors will have 75 days to get fully vaccinated. Workers who don’t comply will be referred to their agencies’ human resources departments for counselling and discipline, to include potential termination.

“We would like to be a model” to other organisations and business around the country, Psaki said of the federal workforce. The AP-NORC poll found 55 per cent of Americans in favour of requiring government workers to be fully vaccinated, compared with 21 per cent who opposed.

Biden has encouraged COVID-19 vaccine requirements in settings like schools, workplaces and university campuses, and the White House hopes the strengthened federal mandate will inspire more businesses to follow suit. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Board of Education was expected to vote on requiring all students 12 and older to be fully vaccinated in the nation’s second-largest school district.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, the Indian Health Service, and the National Institutes of Health have previously announced vaccine requirements for much of their staff, and the Pentagon moved last month to require all service members to get vaccinated. Combined, the White House estimates that those requirements cover 2.5 million Americans. Thursday’s order is expected to impact nearly two million more federal workers and potentially millions of contractors.