Biden’s sweeping vaccine requirements will affect as many as 100M Americans

WASHINGTON — In his most forceful pandemic actions and words yet, President Joe Biden announced sweeping new federal vaccine requirements Thursday affecting as many as 100 million Americans in an all-out effort to increase COVID-19 vaccinations and curb the surging delta variant.

Speaking at the White House, Biden sharply criticized the roughly 80 million Americans who are not yet vaccinated, despite months of free availability.

"We've been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us," he said, all but biting off his words.

The expansive approach he announced mandates that all employers with more than 100 workers — as a workplace safety issue — require them to either be vaccinated or be tested for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.

Further, Biden also is signing an executive order requiring vaccinations for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government, with no option to test instead. That covers several million more workers. Unions representing federal workers, while encouraging vaccinations, called a mandate “ill conceived” and said it should be subject to bargaining over employment terms.

Biden announced the requirements as part of an "action plan" to address the latest rise in coronavirus cases and the stagnating pace of COVID-19 shots that has raised doubts among the public over his handling of the pandemic.

Just two months ago, he prematurely declared the nation's "independence" from the virus. Now, despite more than 208 million Americans having at least one dose of the vaccines, the country is seeing about 300 percent more new infections a day, about two-and-a-half times more hospitalizations and nearly twice the number of deaths compared with the period last year.

After months of using promotions to drive the vaccination rate, Biden now is taking a much firmer hand, as he and aides blamed people who have not yet received shots for the sharp rise in cases that is killing more than 1,000 people per day and imperiling a fragile economic rebound.

Biden also moved to double federal fines for airline passengers who refuse to wear masks on flights or to maintain face covering requirements on federal property in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. And he announced that the federal government will work to increase the supply of virus tests, and that the White House has secured concessions from retailers including Walmart, Amazon, and Kroger to sell at-home testing kits at cost beginning this week.

The requirement for large companies to mandate vaccinations or weekly testing for employees will be enacted through a forthcoming rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that carries penalties of $14,000 per violation, an administration official said. The White House did not immediately say when it would take effect, but said workers would have sufficient time to get vaccinated. The rule would also require that large companies provide paid time off for employees to get vaccinated.

In Iowa, all 99 counties now are in the red zone of high virus transmission rates. That’s not yet the case with all counties in neighboring states Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois, according to federal data.

Still, Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she trusts Iowans — not the government — to make health care decisions.

“President Biden is taking dangerous and unprecedented steps to insert the federal government even further into our lives while dismissing the ability of Iowans and Americans to make health care decisions for themselves. Biden’s plan will only worsen our workforce shortage and further limit our economic recovery,” she said in a statement. “As I’ve said all along, I believe and trust in Iowans to make the best health decisions for themselves and their families. It’s time for President Biden to do the same. Enough is enough.”

An AP-NORC poll conducted in August found 55 percent of Americans in favor of requiring government workers to be fully vaccinated, compared with 21 percent opposed. Similar majorities also backed vaccine mandates for health care workers, teachers working at K-12 schools and workers who interact with the public, as at restaurants and stores.