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It’s a move that represents both the speed with which the White House is moving forward on the issue and also the recognition that there is a range of key stakeholders who will play a leading role in the days and weeks to come. as the policy is implemented.
Yet at this point there has been no significant public grumbling from any national union group indicating that the efforts have had an effect, as administration officials have sought to clarify that the requirement works by attestation of vaccination status – and that those who choose not to be vaccinated would not experience any employment-related repercussions.
The effort continues with an urgency within the administration that has become tangible in recent days as the Delta variant rolled back gains that seemed almost stuck just a few weeks ago. Biden and his top advisers have made it clear on several occasions that the solution is both effective and readily available – vaccinations. Yet tens of millions of Americans still remain unvaccinated.
“We still have a lot of unvaccinated people,” Biden said at the head of the economic remarks prepared in Pennsylvania Wednesday. “The pandemic we have now is an unvaccinated pandemic. So please. Please, please, please, if you are not vaccinated, protect you and the kids there. “
But as industries and groups began to grapple with a clear shift in the White House’s stance in the effort to scale up vaccinations, a source attributed the public’s lack of hindsight at least in part to the recognition through conversations that the White House had already decided to advance.
“It was less of a ‘What do you think?’ conversation and more than a ‘Here’s what we’re doing’ conversation, ”one of the people said.
Biden, in remarks Thursday, plans to require all federal employees to attest to being vaccinated or to face strict Covid protocols, including regular testing, masking and other mitigation measures a source with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN on Tuesday. The directive, which has been under consideration by the administration for several days, would mark a radical strategic shift for the White House as it urgently seeks to combat the spread of the Delta variant.
Biden hinted at the impending announcement on Tuesday.
“It’s under review right now,” he said when asked if he would impose a vaccination mandate on federal workers.
Biden will not impose the requirement on the US military, despite his authority to do so, at this time. He is, however, likely to describe how the Defense Ministry might seek to approach the matter in the future, the source said.
When asked if he thought the new revised mask guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lead to confusion for Americans, Biden blamed the unvaccinated Americans on Tuesday, saying that if they had been vaccinated “we would be in a very different world.”
“We have a pandemic because the unvaccinated and they cause enormous confusion. And the more we learn about this virus and the Delta variation, the more we have to be worried and concerned about. And there is only one thing that we do. we are sure: if those other hundred million people were vaccinated, we would be in a very different world, “he said.
Lawyers for the Department of Justice have determined that federal law does not prohibit public agencies and private companies from requiring Covid-19 vaccines, even though the vaccines have only been authorized for emergency use, according to a notice posted online Monday.
The notice from the department’s legal counsel’s office – dated July 6, but released on Monday – paves the way for more federal agencies and businesses to demand vaccinations in the wake of VA’s announcement about frontline health workers.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Jason Hoffman contributed to this report.
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