President Joe Biden on Thursday is announcing 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 jeopardizing 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.
Biden was to announce the new requirements in a Thursday afternoon address from the White House as part of a new “action plan” to address the latest rise in coronavirus cases and the stagnating pace of COVID-19 shots that has raised doubts among the public over his handling of the pandemic.
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 U.S. is seeing about 300% more new COVID-19 infections a day, about two-and-a-half times more hospitalizations, and nearly twice the number of deaths compared to the same time last year.
Biden’s plans were previewed Thursday afternoon by White House press secretary Jen Psaki and other senior administration officials ahead of the speech.
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 imperiling a fragile economic rebound.
Psaki said Biden’s “overarching objective here is to reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans,” noting about 80 million adults remain unvaccinated.
An AP-NORC poll conducted in August found that 54% of Americans approved of Biden’s stewardship of the public health crisis, down from 66% 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.
Biden was also to announce that the federal government will work to increase the supply of virus tests, and that the White House has secured concessions from retailers including Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger to sell at-home testing kits at cost beginning this week.
The administration is also to send additional federal support to assist schools in safely operating, including additional funding for testing. And Biden will call for large entertainment venues and arenas to require vaccinations or proof of a negative test for entry.
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.
The rule would also require that large companies provide paid time off for vaccination.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will extend a vaccination requirement issued earlier this summer — for nursing home staff — to other healthcare settings including hospitals, home-health agencies and dialysis centers.
Separately, the Department of Health and Human Services will require vaccinations in Head Start Programs, as well as schools run by the Department of Defense and Bureau of Indian Education, affecting about 300,000 employees.
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 counseling and discipline, to include potential termination.
“We would like to be a model” to other organizations and business around country, Psaki said of the federal workforce. The AP-NORC poll found 55% of Americans in favor of requiring government workers to be fully vaccinated, compared with 21% 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 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 staffs, and the Pentagon moved last month to require all servicemembers to get vaccinated. Combined, the White House estimates those requirements cover 2.5 million Americans. Thursday’s order is expected to impact nearly 2 million more federal workers and potentially millions of contractors.
More than 177 million are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but confirmed cases of the virus have shot up in recent weeks to an average of about 140,000 per day with on average about 1,000 Americans dying from the virus daily, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most of the spread — and the vast majority of severe illness and death — is occurring among those not yet fully vaccinated against the virus. So-called breakthrough infections in vaccinated people occur, but tend to be far less dangerous.
“We cannot accept this to be the new normal,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner who comments regularly on the pandemic.. If the pandemic continues unabated, it will mean 500,000 deaths a year. “Surely no one wants that.”
Wen has been urging the White House to take a stronger line on vaccine requirements, including the use of so-called vaccine “passports” for travel and workplace mandates that leave little wiggle room.
“I want to see the full power of the federal government here, and not more half measures,” she said. “I want to see a hard reset from the Biden administration, not more nibbling around the edges.”
Federal officials are moving ahead with plans to begin administering booster shots of the mRNA vaccines to bolster protection against the more transmissible delta variant of the virus. Last month Biden announced plans to make them available beginning on Sept. 20, but only the Pfizer vaccine will likely have received regulatory approval for a third dose by that time. Federal regulators are seeking additional data from Moderna that will likely delay its booster approval until October.
Officials are aiming to administer the booster shots about eight months after the second dose of the two-dose vaccines.
(AP)
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23 Responses
We will not comply.
What about smoking and legalizing pot. That’s ok.
“Most of the spread — and the vast majority of severe illness and death — is occurring among those not yet fully vaccinated against the virus. So-called breakthrough infections in vaccinated people occur, but tend to be far less dangerous.”
So that’s how the AP (Always Propaganda) spins this now.
Even the AP doesn’t claim that “breakthrough” infections are rare. They leave it as simply “occur”. No percentages. No real sense of how often. Just “occur”. Then the excuse that those infections “tend to be far less dangerous”, not that the infections should never happen to begin with.
Regardless, the two comparison groups they chose are either vaccinated and not. They, as always, totally disregard whether or not those who are not vaccinated already have natural immunity from having had Covid.
So those who did get Covid recently are likely either those who never got Covid before or those who got vaccinated, even if they did get Covid before.
“Now, despite more than 208 million Americans having at least one dose of the vaccines, the U.S. is seeing about 300% more new COVID-19 infections a day, about two-and-a-half times more hospitalizations, and nearly twice the number of deaths compared to the same time last year.”
Given that the vaccines were supposed to be the end of Covid, this is very bizarre. Most of the country has gotten the shots. Yet the numbers above indicate three times more Covid cases, and at least double the hospitalizations and deaths than before the shots?
Strange.
It’s fair enough to require it of federal employees and contractors; you work for the president, you obey his rules, just like any other employer.
Requiring employers to require it of *their* employees gets hairier. Federally funded employers, you can make it a condition of that funding.
But using OSHA?! Essentially Biden is declaring that a workplace without a vaccine mandate is inherently unsafe. I doubt he has the authority for that. If there are large employers who will challenge it, I doubt it will stand. But will any? Or will they all just take the path of least resistance and impose the mandate on their employees?
MASK mandate?! YWN goofs again. Whoever at YWN wrote the headline didn’t bother reading the article first!
Sweeping mask mandate!
Then the article goes on to talk about mandatory vaccinations…
A lot better than the wicked evil Australian government lifting their hand against G-d by having shuttered all מנינים during the High Holidays וגדול עוונם מנשוא
Rats…thats fine. Just make out your check to the U.S. Treasury if your employ more than 100 employees, update your resume if you work for the feds or a federal contractor, or don’t expect reimbursement from HHS if you are a health care provider.
That’s already illegal in public and you’re free to do it in the privacy of your own home.
If you want to not vaccinate then stay home.
“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration that carries penalties of $14,000 per violation “… now it make’s sense.
if the vaccine was was developed under Trump’s “Warp speed” , the Pfizer vaccine fully approved by the FDA with hundreds of millions vaccinated with no ill effects I fail to understand why anyone would refuse to be vaccinated. According to medical professionals 99% of those hospitalized with severe Covid are unvaccinated and of those who survive there is a likelihood of long term health issues.
Do not comply
Maybe now some people think it’s ok
Two shots no big deal
Be quiet and get your shots.
Do you think this will end?
They’ll end like the two week lockdowns ended
Like the mask mandates ended
Like the vaccine works after two shots right? Nope, guess again.
It will be years and years of mandating boosters and god only knows what other kind of nonsense to keep these power hungry sickos in charge of you.
There will be endless variants paraded and bloated COVID death counts and anything to keep pharma profits high and you under their thumb
Just stop now
Don’t kneel
Don’t bend
Don’t give in
This is your life
When soda
Ding dongs
Cheeseburgers
Cigarettes
Donuts
Drugs
Hot dogs
Hey, how about pollution and pesticides
When they get banned
To save lives
Like the 400,000 people a year who die from heart disease caused by a bad diet
And all the overdoses
And the cancer deaths from toxic chemicals and bad diets
Then I will think about getting the shot
Right on Rats!
Too many stories of young people with horrible effects from the vaccine! Its all about $$$ and CONTROL.
WE WILL NOT COMPLY.
Low life ran for president saying that he wasn’t going to be instituting such things. He’s a liar but then again what else is new. 2024 can’t come a minute too soon!
Such beautiful news! A breath of fresh air to have a president that’s taking the magaifah seriously.
What a joke he has zero authority to make such a rule we are a country of law congress senate and president kapeesh the ones who will listen are the same ones still wearing a mask
The White House has foxily exempted its own employees in the past from taking these shots. The CDC and other government health organizations have also stealthily exempted their officers, staff and other workers from taking these potentially maiming and lethal injections. Many pharmaceutical and other company principal officers (and others in the know about the injections’ unworthy status) have claimed ‘serum immunity or allergies’ and opted out – also very stealthily.
Let’s see how long this insanity can last without criminal mischief. Fauci, for instance is known to never have taken any of these imbecilic shots, though he owns many of the patents on them. If he and others of his ilk actually take them according to these new proposed regulations, many of these wise-guys will suffer from the adverse affects as so many already have from the general population.
This should finally usher in an end of this ‘madness cult’. Hopefully, there will be a major remnant of non-afflicted military and other loyal citizens to maintain this country with sanity and health.
this is another aspect of the filth entering our world, BIDEN___may we never be encumbered with this fool
I am not a legal expert, but did they not say under the previous administration that all rules regarding covid 19 belong to the governors of the States
There seems to be an obsession in the Jewish media to “get the vaccine” and I wonder who is paying for these “public service announcements”? The U.S. government’s Vaccine Adverse Event System (VAERS) database – shown by Harvard in 2009 to only report 1% of adverse events – as of last Friday reported that following the Covid-19 shots, there have been 13,911 deaths, 18,098 permanent disabilities, 76,160 ER visits, 56,912 hospitalizations, 2,933,377 injury symptoms, and 14,327 life-threatening events. Don’t forget that only 1% of adverse events are reported, since most doctors and nurses don’t even know what VAERS is, and the reportig process is near-impossible, by design. Do the math…
Just this past week, the Toronto Sun ran a story entitled: “More than 100 Ontario Youth Sent to the Hospital for Vaccine-Related Heart Problems: Report.” Yet, the Jewish media won’t stop pushing. Why?
If Biden convinces the Supreme Court to let him issue such a decree by saying magic words “public health”, without an act of Congress or a provision of the Constitution, imagine what a conservative president could do in the name of public health (ban marijuana, ban circumcision, ban abortion, mandate use of contraception).
There is a reason the constitution gives the power to make all laws to the Congress (535 people, all with different constituencies – which limits the mischief they can get into since it requires a consensus), and reserved all powers not assigned to the Federal government to the states. Letting any President rule by decree, unrestricted by law or the legislature, is incompatible with a democracy.
the new hitler