White House exploring vaccine mandate
Biden: Inoculation may be required for federal workforce
WASHINGTON >> President Joe Biden said that the federal government was considering making vaccines mandatory for its workforce on Tuesday — what would amount to a significant escalation in the push to expand vaccine coverage, as the surge from the Delta variant complicates the country’s reopening and brings the issue of widespread vaccine resistance to the fore.
“That’s under consideration right now,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question about a mandate for federal employees, at an appearance. “If you’re not vaccinated, you’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were.”
The news comes as the exponential growth of cases in many areas of the country concerns public health officials and government authorities. Vaccination rates have been slowing for weeks, even though less than half of the country is fully vaccinated — well under the targets officials say is necessary to control out
breaks from more virulent strains of the virus like the Delta variant.
And the public and political appetite for restrictions and closures, always fraught, appears to be waning even further, more than 16 months into the pandemic.
Further, the sharp rise in cases comes as many office buildings and corporate campuses that have been closed for the entirety of the pandemic have begun the process of reopening in cities across the country.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which addresses workplace complaints about discrimination over race, religion, sex and other characteristics, issued guidance in May that said that employers could mandate vaccines for workers to work onsite, as long as they do it in ways that don’t run afoul of civil rights and disability statutes. And the Justice Department followed with a similar memo on Monday that said that federal law does not prohibit public and private employers from requiring the vaccine, even if it has only been approved for emergency use, by the Food and Drug Administration.
Recent court rulings, in cases filed by groups opposed to mandates, have upheld these requirements too.
But many companies so far have avoided vaccine mandates, opting instead for guidance urging or recommending the vaccine.
The tide may be turning, as the spike in cases from the Delta variant begins to threaten hopes for a return to anything resembling a pre-pandemic normal.
There are more than 4 million federal employees, a figure that includes civilian workers, members of the military, and members of the U.S. Postal Service, according to recent estimates, making the government the country’s largest employer.