Nearly 100 million U.S. workers will be required to get the COVID vaccine by January 4, with some workers allowed to test weekly instead, under sweeping federal rules released Thursday by the Biden administration that identifies COVID-19 as an occupational hazard.
The regulations are aimed at health care workers and businesses with 100 or more employees, covering two-thirds of the nation’s workforce. Businesses that don’t comply could be fined $14,000 per infraction, and hospitals could lose access to Medicare and Medicaid dollars.
It’s part of President Joe Biden’s aggressive new plan to try quell a pandemic that’s overshadowed his presidency and hobbled the economy. At the same time, the January 4 date is a nod to industry groups that insisted the administration wait until after the holidays to impose mandates in the midst of a worker shortage.
President Biden’s plan also gives federal contractors an extra month to comply, sliding a previous December 8 deadline set by the administration. Federal workers are still required to be vaccinated by November 22.
When asked whether the worker shortage was a factor in the decision, administration officials said the primary focus was on making compliance easier for workers and aligning deadlines across the private sector.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and CDC director Rochelle Walensky testified Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about the vaccine mandate, with the latter saying, “We know the most disruptive thing in our workforce is to have a COVID outbreak and to have workers in that workforce come down with COVID infection, severe disease, and in some cases, death.”
Source-ABC
