President Biden announces new vaccine mandates to tackle the virus

DORAL, FL – President Joe Biden announced in a Thursday afternoon address from the White House new vaccine mandates to tackle the coronavirus that has been on the rise lately due to delta variant. 

The new vaccine mandates are intended to reach as many as 100 million Americans, such as private sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors, that are still unvaccinated.

Under these, all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus every week, which will extend to roughly 80 million Americans.

The measures include also the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid. They will too are required to be fully vaccinated.

Additionally, President Biden is also demanding employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government to be fully vaccinated. 

During his intervention, the administration criticized the tens of  millions of Americans who are not yet vaccinated, despite months of availability and incentives, reported the AP. 

“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 unvaccinated minority “can cause a lot of damage, and they are.”

The vaccine mandates were received with both praise and disagreement. On the first group are the American Medical Association, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Business Roundtable, while Republican leaders, and some union chiefs as well, said “Biden was going too far in trying to muscle private companies and workers”, as the AP reported. 

So far, more than 208 million Americans have had at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccines, although the U.S. is seeing about 300% more new COVID-19 infections daily, about two-and-a-half times more hospitalizations, and nearly twice the number of deaths compared to the same time last year.

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