President Biden on Thursday will announce new vaccine mandates for millions of workers around the United States, including large businesses, federal employees and the majority of health care workers, senior administration officials said, as he aims to boost vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant that is killing thousands each week and jeopardizing the nation’s economic recovery.
What You Need To Know
- President Biden on Thursday will announce new vaccine mandates for millions of workers around the United States, including large businesses, federal employees and the majority of health care workers
- The White House outlined a forthcoming rule for large businesses, which will require them to ensure all employees are vaccinated or tested weekly
- Biden will also sign a new executive order to require vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government, plus mandate vaccines for health care providers who accept federal insurance
- The new mandates will be outlines in a speech Thursday afternoon detailing the president’s new, six-pronged plan to address the latest rise in coronavirus cases and the stagnating pace of COVID-19 shots
Senior administration officials outlined on Thursday a forthcoming requirement for private companies with 100 employees or more to ensure all their workers are fully vaccinated or that they produce a negative COVID test weekly, at a minimum. The new rule, which will come from the Department of Labor, would impact as many as 80 million workers in the private sector.
And weeks after he mandated federal workers get a shot or face rigorous testing and masking protocols, Biden will sign a new executive order to require vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government, with no testing option.
The new requirements will also apply to “most” health care workers in settings that accept Medicaid and Medicare, another mandate that will impact more than 17 million people and “apply to approximately 50,000 providers,” according to White House guidance.
The vaccine mandates are one effort the president will speak about in a speech Thursday afternoon, when he will outline a six-pronged plan to address the latest rise in coronavirus cases and the stagnating pace of COVID-19 shots.
The White House on Wednesday released an 11-page document titled “Path out of the Pandemic: President Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan,” which also includes details on efforts such as a plan for booster shots, increasing virus testing in schools, more funding for businesses impacted by the pandemic and boosting support for antibody treatments and hospitals burdened by COVID-19.
The latest playbook is meant to show that Biden’s administration is working to tackle the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases, which the president has blamed for last month’s weaker-than-expected jobs report. He’s warned the surge could further imperil the nation’s economy as some pandemic safety net protections expire.
Senior administration officials said Thursday that a timeline for the mandates, further details about the new plans and additional steps to fight the pandemic will be announced in the coming days and weeks.
Asked what the punishment would be for federal workers who do not get vaccinated within the time frame allowed, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said they would go through an “HR process” and could be fired.
“Hopefully it doesn’t come to that,” she said.
Federal workers and contractors will not have a testing option, but the order includes exceptions for people seeking religious or medical exemptions from vaccination. Psaki said they would have about 75 days to comply.
The new vaccine requirement for private companies will come in the form of a new Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard.
If a company does not follow the new rules, the agency “will take enforcement actions” in the form of “substantial fines,” a senior administration official said.
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.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Health and Human Services, the Indian Health Service, and the National Institute 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.
Biden on Thursday will call on states to adopt vaccine mandates for all school employees, plus use federal funding for testing programs and other reopening measures.
He will also highlight new efforts to increase testing nationwide, including by making rapid tests more accessible and affordable and expanding testing in pharmacies.
Another prong of the plan focuses on antibody treatments for people infected with COVID-19. The White House said they would increase weekly shipments of the drugs to states and expand the number of personnel qualified to give the treatment, partly through “monoclonal antibody strike teams.”
More than 208 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 177 million are fully vaccinated, 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.
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.
