President Joe Biden will speak on Wednesday, September 8, 2021 in the East Room of the White House in Washington during a trade union celebration event. (AP photo / Evan Vucci)
Washington (AP) — On Thursday, President Joe Biden increased COVID-19 vaccination, killing thousands each week, and 100 million in full-scale efforts to curb the surge in endangered delta mutations. Announcing new federal vaccine requirements affecting as many Americans as the country’s economic recovery.
Extensive regulations require every employer with more than 100 workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly, affecting approximately 80 million Americans. Approximately 17 million workers in federal Medicare or Medicaid medical facilities also need to be fully vaccinated.
Biden has also signed an executive order requiring vaccinations from government employees and contractors dealing with the federal government. There is no option to test. It also covers millions of workers.
Biden said in a Thursday afternoon speech at the White House as part of a new “action plan” to address the recent increase in coronavirus cases and the stagnation pace of COVID-19 shots, which has raised suspicion among the public. We were planning to announce new requirements from. His treatment of the pandemic.
Just two months ago, Biden prematurely declared the state’s “independence” from the virus. Despite the fact that more than 208 million Americans are currently vaccinated at least once, the United States sees about 300% more new COVID-19 infections per day, about 2.5 times more. There are hospitalizations, and the number has almost doubled. The number of deaths compared to the same period last year.
Biden’s plans were previewed Thursday afternoon by White House spokesman Jen Psaki and other senior government officials prior to the speech.
After months of using promotions to boost immunization rates, Biden blames those who haven’t yet received shots for the surge in incidents that kill more than 1,000 people a day and threaten a fragile economy. Because it is taking a much more solid hand rebound.
“The overall purpose here is to reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans,” Saki said, saying that about 80 million adults remain unvaccinated. rice field.
In addition to vaccination requirements, Byden has refused to wear masks on flights or maintain federal property face-covering requirements in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for airline passengers. And impose double federal fines.
Biden also secured concessions from retailers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon and Kroger for the federal government to work to increase the supply of virus tests and for the White House to sell home test kits for a fee starting this week. Announced that it was done.
The administration will also send additional federal support to help schools operate safely, including additional funding for testing. Biden also requires large entertainment venues and arenas to require proof of a negative test for vaccination or admission.
The requirement for large companies to require employees to be vaccinated or inspected weekly will be met through the following rules from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which impose a $ 14,000 fine for each breach, officials said. The White House did not immediately announce when it would take effect, but said workers had enough time to get vaccinated.
The rule will also require large companies to provide paid leave for vaccination.
Meanwhile, the Medicare & Medicaid Service Center will extend the vaccination requirements for nursing home staff, issued earlier this summer, to other medical facilities such as hospitals, home care institutions and dialysis centers.
Separately, the Department of Health and Human Services requires a headstart program and vaccinations at schools run by the Department of Defense and the Department of Education of India, affecting approximately 300,000 employees.
According to Psaki, orders to Biden’s government workers and contractors include the exception of workers seeking a religious or medical exemption from vaccination. Federal workers and contractors take 75 days to be fully vaccinated. Workers who do not comply are referred to the human resources department of their institution for counseling and disciplinary action to include the possibility of dismissal.
“We want to be a model for other organizations and businesses across the country,” Psaki said of the federal workforce.
In an AP-NORC poll conducted in August, 55% of Americans agreed to require civil servants to be fully vaccinated, and 21% opposed. A similar majority also upheld the obligation to vaccinate health care workers, teachers working in schools from kindergarten to high school, and workers interacting with the general public, such as restaurants and stores.
Biden encourages COVID-19 vaccine requirements in environments such as schools, workplaces and university campuses, and the White House encourages increased federal authority to follow more businesses. I want it. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Board of Education was expected to vote to require all students over the age of 12 to be fully vaccinated in the second largest school district in the United States.
Wal-Mart, the country’s largest private employer, will vaccinate all workers at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas and managers traveling in the United States in late July with COVID-19 by October 4. Said that it is obligatory. Stop requesting shots for its frontline workers.
CVS Health said in late August that certain employees interacting with patients would need to be fully vaccinated by the end of October. This includes nurses, care managers and pharmacists.
In the government, several federal agencies have previously announced vaccination requirements for many staff, especially those with medical roles such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Pentagon last month vaccinated all service members. It worked to request. Together, the White House estimates that those requirements will cover 2.5 million Americans. Thursday’s order is expected to affect nearly two million federal workers and potentially millions of contractors.
Dr. Joshua Schaffstein, Deputy Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, says Biden’s measures should help, but what is really needed is a change in the mindset of many.
“This has some implications for our country being so divided,” said Schaffstein. “This has become so political that people cannot see the value of vaccination that can save their lives. Our own division is preventing us from ending the pandemic. . “
The U.S. Government Employees’ Federation, the largest union of federal employees, strongly encourages vaccination, but said workers should have a say in new missions affecting them.
“In short, workers deserve a say in their working conditions,” said President Everett Kelly. “We expect to negotiate this change before implementation and strongly recommend that anyone who can be vaccinated should be vaccinated as soon as possible.”
Larry Cosmetics, chairman of the Federal Association of Law Enforcers, called the mission of federal workers “unexpected” and said that “vaccination should be facilitated by education and encouragement, not compulsion.”
More than 177 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the average number of confirmed cases has reached an average of about 140,000 per day in recent weeks. , An average of about 1,000 people have died.
Most of the spread, and most of the severe illnesses and deaths, occur among people who have not yet been fully vaccinated. So-called breakthrough infections occur in vaccinated people, but the risk tends to be much lower.
Federal authorities are planning to begin giving booster shots of the mRNA vaccine to enhance protection against the more contagious delta mutants. Last month, Biden announced plans to make them available from September 20, but only Pfizer vaccines may have been approved by regulatory authorities for a third dose by that time.
Authorities aim to administer booster shots approximately eight months after the second dose of the double dose vaccine.
Eliminate New Vaccine Obligations for 100 Million Americans | Chicago News
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