By Marie Rosenthal, MS
President Joe Biden provided “straight talk,” cajoled and pleaded, but came just shy of making COVID-19 vaccination a condition of employment for all federal employees in a speech on July 29.
Instead, he said all federal employees will have to “attest” to vaccination, and if they have not been vaccinated, they will have to be tested for COVID-19 once or twice a week, wear masks during work hours, socially distance and will not be able to travel for their jobs.
Mr. Biden also said the same rules should apply to all federal contractors. “I am directing my administration to take steps to apply similar standards to all federal contractors,” he said. “If you want to do business with the federal government, get your workers vaccinated.”
The president highlighted the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has already made vaccination a condition of employment for its health care staff, as many civilian health systems are doing. He also called on the Department of Defense to do the same.
“Today, I’m asking the defense department to look into how and when they will add COVID-19 vaccination to the list of vaccines our armed forces must get. Our men and women in uniform who protect this country from grave threats should be protected as much as possible from getting COVID-19,” the president said. “I think this is particularly important because our troops serve in places throughout the world, many where vaccination rates are low and disease is prevalent.”
In addition, he encouraged all employers to promote vaccination among their employees by giving them paid time off to receive vaccination. He said all small- and medium-sized businesses will be reimbursed for doing so through the American Rescue Plan. “This costs you nothing. If you haven’t given employees paid time off, do it now, please.
“The federal government will now reimburse those employers to give their staff time off, not only to get themselves vaccinated, but also their family members vaccinated,” Mr. Biden said.
He also encouraged the use of any incentives that might increase vaccination—even cash payments—and highlighted a program from the grocery store chain Kroger’s, which increased vaccination by offering staff $100 to be vaccinated. “States like New Mexico, Ohio and Colorado are offering similar incentive programs that have helped increase vaccinate rates.”
Why the additional push for the vaccine? It is simple, the president said: the Delta variant. “The Delta variant is much different than the ones we dealt with previously.
“It’s highly transmissible and causing a new wave of cases,” he said, and almost all of the serious cases, the hospitalizations and deaths are occurring among unvaccinated people. “It’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated. There are 90 million Americans who are eligible to get the shot, but haven’t gotten it yet.”
He took out a card that he says he carries with him every day, which includes the daily COVID-19 deaths. “As of this morning, the total deaths in the United States [from COVID-19] are 609,441,” he said. “That’s more death than World War I, World War II, Vietnam, 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.”
And he reiterated that “nearly all the cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 today are from unvaccinated people. Last month, a study showed that over 99% of COVID-19 deaths had been among the unvaccinated: 99%. This is an American tragedy. People are dying.”
