[ad_1]
President Joe Biden this week presented a new strategy to combat the spread of COVID-19, as daily cases average around 150,000 and hospitalizations are increasing, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.
The recent increase in the number of cases, largely due to the highly contagious Delta variant, has prompted calls for immunization mandates from health officials and policy makers.
“If you get federal funding, there should be a mandate to vaccinate,” emergency physician Dr. Anand Swaminathan told Yahoo Finance Live. “There should be a vaccine mandate for all companies. “
“We know warrants help,” Swaminathan added when discussing how to curb the spread of COVID-19. “They’re helping get more people vaccinated… and we need those mandates in place. “
In his address to the nation on Thursday, Biden called on the US Department of Labor to require employers of more than 100 workers to prescribe vaccines or implement weekly tests, a plan which the Biden administration said will affect about 100 million Americans, or two-thirds of the population. Workforce.
“We have been patient, but our patience is running out,” Biden told nearly a third of Americans, aged 18 and over, who are not yet fully vaccinated. “And your refusal has cost us all.”
A recent Gallup poll found that 19% of American workers say their employer requires vaccines in order to return to the office, more than double the number in Gallup’s previous survey in July. Meanwhile, 55% of employees say their company promotes vaccines. Chevron, UPS, Goldman Sachs, Twitter and Facebook are among the employers who announced vaccination mandates for their employees earlier this summer.
But a vaccination mandate is always a matter of division, and something that is not supported by an overwhelming majority of the population. An NPR / PBS NewsHour / Marist poll earlier this month found that only about half of American adults support employers requiring vaccines to return to work, while 44% do not.
As of Thursday, about 208 million people, or 62% of the country, received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while 177 million, or 53%, of the population is fully vaccinated.
Seana smith anchors Yahoo Finance Live’s 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET program. Follow her on Twitter @SeanaNSmith
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, Youtube, and reddit
[ad_2]
Source link