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By Jeff Mason, Ahmed Aboulenein and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden targeted vaccine resistance in America on Thursday, announcing policies requiring most federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and pushing large employers to vaccinate or test their workers every week.
The new measures, which Biden outlined in White House remarks, would apply to about two-thirds of all American employees, those who work for companies with more than 100 workers.
“We have been patient,” Biden told the tens of millions of Americans who refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. “But our patience is running out and your refusal has cost us all.”
Taken together, the policies and rhetoric represented Biden’s most aggressive moves yet to make Americans resist gunfire as the fast-spreading Delta variant unleashes a new wave of illness and death.
The push has placed increased risk not only on the country, but also on a president who has come forward promising to take control of the pandemic. Biden’s approval ratings have sagged since he said in July that the United States was “closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.”
Biden’s latest moves are expected to face political and legal challenges.
Despite a full Biden administration campaign urging Americans to get free and widely available vaccines, just over 62% of eligible Americans https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations_vacc -total-admin -rate-total are fully vaccinated, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Thursday, Biden warned that “we are in a difficult time and this could go on for some time.”
Experts in infectious disease and health policy said the warrants are unlikely to significantly change infection rates quickly.
Still, they would help against potential future waves of the virus, reducing deaths and hospitalizations and alleviating stress on the healthcare system, said Dr Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, former chief scientist at Food. and Drug Administration of the United States.
“It is absolutely the right thing to do,” he said. “Ideally, everyone would have already been vaccinated. “
“FEAR, CONTROL AND MANDATES”
In a televised speech of just under half an hour, the Democratic president accused “a distinct minority of elected officials” who resisted the masks and vaccines mandates for reasons of freedom of choice and economics such as ” making people sick “.
The White House COVID-19 Stimulus Package https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bidens-covid-19-strategy-thwarted-by-anti-vaxxers-delta-variant-2021-07-29 was based on the vast majority of eligible Americans being vaccinated this year. But the issue of public health has become politicized, with a vocal minority refusing gun and mask warrants.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order in July blocking school mask mandates.
Administration medical officials said more than 97% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, and these people account for an even higher share of deaths.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the senior Republican on the House of Representatives committee that oversees health policy, said Biden “uses fear, control and mandates.”
The Republican National Committee has said it intends to sue the Biden administration for the vaccine tenure.
As part of Biden’s plan, the administration will also require the immunizations of more than 17 million healthcare workers in hospitals and other institutions who participate in social Medicare and Medicaid programs for poor, disabled and elderly Americans.
Biden previously required federal employees to be vaccinated or tested. Federal workers now have 75 days to get vaccinated, or risk being made redundant unless they fall under limited exemption categories.
Federal workers’ unions on Thursday suggested they would accept the vaccine’s mandate.
SIGNIFICANT FINES
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the US Department of Labor plans to take enforcement action against private companies that fail to comply with the vaccine mandate, with substantial fines of nearly $ 14,000 per violation.
The administration is also calling on places of entertainment to demand tests or shootings and on states to adopt warrants for school employees. It is also increasing the fines https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-doubling-fines-travelers-not-wearing-masks-2021-09-09 imposed on people who do not wear masks on airplanes , trains and buses.
It also plans to increase the virus’ testing capacity.
Biden will use authority under the Defense Production Act to push the industry to ramp up production of the tests, and major retailers, including Walmart Inc, Amazon.com Inc, and Kroger Co, are expected to sell the tests at cost during the months. next three months to make them more affordable.
Critics said the Biden administration did not do enough testing during his seven-month tenure. Still, the new demand for testing could tax already strained providers.
Administration officials believe the full recovery of the US economy depends on mitigating the spread of the virus, the president’s main focus since taking office in January.
The disease has killed more than 654,000 people in the United States, and deaths and hospitalizations have risen sharply as the easily transmitted Delta variant of the virus spreads. https://tmsnrt.rs/3A1KHg3
The spread of the Delta variant has raised concerns as children return to school, while shaking investors, upsetting plans to return to the company’s office, and downsizing https://www.reuters.com / world / us / us-job- growth-slows-sharply-August-the-unemployment-rate-falling-52-2021-09-03 hiring.
The White House is also planning to offer booster shots that provide additional protection to those who are fully vaccinated. But supplies are tight and the World Health Organization has begged rich countries to halt booster programs until more people around the world are vaccinated.
But with Delta causing more symptomatic infections among fully vaccinated individuals, most vaccinated Americans want a booster, a recent Reuters / Ipsos opinion poll found. Boosters could start the week of September 20.
“Get vaccinated,” Biden urged as he closed his speech.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Ahmed Aboulenein and Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, David Shepardson and Susan Heavey; Writing by Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Heather Timmons, Howard Goller and Peter Cooney)
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