When efforts to persuade and invite people to get vaccinated with many incentive initiatives failed to accelerate the vaccination campaign as expected, US President Joe Biden announced Covid-19 at a press conference at the White House on July 29.
Biden continues to use `carrots`, calling on state and local governments to award $100 to anyone willing to volunteer for vaccination.
In addition to the mandatory vaccination regulations for civil servants, the Biden administration will also erect many inconvenient barriers for those who refuse to be vaccinated, such as having to be tested regularly, keep distance, wear masks and limit
US President Joe Biden spoke in the East Room, White House, on July 29.
Biden asked the Department of Defense to consider mandatory vaccination for members of the military, adding that federal contractors would have to prove their vaccination status to work with the federal government.
The US President said that the Covid-19 crisis he thought he had successfully controlled was flaring up again, threatening public health and the country’s economic recovery, in an effort to explain the measures.
This is also part of his effort to revive the national vaccination drive, which has stagnated in many places in the context of the number of Covid-19 infections increasing again because of the Delta mutation.
However, the Biden administration’s move immediately faced opposition from some of the country’s largest unions representing teachers, police and postal workers, who called for negotiations on the issue.
`Forcing people to undergo a medical procedure is not the American way and it clearly violates civil rights, no matter how hard proponents try to justify it,` said the president of the American Medical Association.
President Biden also announced that small and medium-sized businesses will be reimbursed if they give employees paid leave so they and their families can get vaccinated.
He called on school districts to set up `mobile vaccination sites` to vaccinate children before the new school year begins, urging private businesses, sports federations and other organizations to quickly vaccinate children.
Addressing directly to `unvaccinated, unconcerned, and unconvinced` Americans, President Biden wants them to remember the 2020 lockdown and not forget `how dark that winter was.`
`With incentives and requirements, we can make a huge difference and save lives,` he emphasized.
All US citizens over the age of 12 can now get the Covid-19 vaccine.
During the election campaign, Biden pledged to defeat Covid-19, despite the deeply divided politics he inherited from his predecessor Donald Trump.
Just a few weeks ago, he held a party to celebrate the Fourth of July at the White House, declaring `independence` from the virus.
Behind the scenes, Biden’s top public health officials have been pondering the best way to get more people vaccinated in recent weeks without legal challenges.
The July 27 internal review presented to senior leaders of the Department of Health and Human Services revealed a grim reality about the pandemic’s trajectory.
A banner advertising the Covid-19 vaccine in Queens, New York.
`Since the lowest number of new infections recorded on June 19, this number has increased by 440%,` the assessment concluded.
As for the military, President Biden has signaled that he may pursue a tougher stance, putting the armed forces at the center of an increasingly fierce debate over mandatory vaccinations.
As commander in chief, the President has the right to order soldiers to use experimental vaccines.
`I think this will have a bigger impact on areas of the country with low vaccination rates or populations that are skeptical about vaccination, hopefully it will show them that vaccines don’t have any problems.`
US service members are regularly vaccinated, and those who are not are sometimes not allowed to deploy overseas and face a series of restrictions.
Many US soldiers currently appear reluctant to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
Military leaders cannot require soldiers to be vaccinated, because the US’s three current Covid-19 vaccines have only been approved on an emergency use basis.
According to Besser, President Biden’s recommendation for mandatory vaccination in the military is `quite reasonable` because this is a `contagious` environment.
`People in the military are very close together and in terms of response readiness, you would never want to see Covid-19 defeat unvaccinated soldiers,` he said.