As states all over America get into heated dialogue and discourse about vaccination mandates, President Jo Biden is ensuring that all federal workers must be vaccinated.
Weeks after the president mandated federal workers get a shot or face rigorous testing and masking protocols, Biden will sign a new executive order to require vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government, according to an undisclosed source.
Although, it wasn’t immediately clear if Biden’s order includes exceptions for workers or contractors seeking religious or medical exemptions from vaccination.
This order comes after the surge of the Delta variant may further jeopardize the economy as hospitals continue to receive cases and hospitalizations, and businesses remain or become closed.
Biden has previously encouraged COVID-19 vaccine requirements in settings like schools, workplaces, and university campuses, and the White House hopes the strengthened federal mandate will inspire more businesses to follow suit.
An AP-NORC poll conducted in August found 55% of Americans in favor of requiring government workers to be fully vaccinated, compared with 21% opposed.
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According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 208 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 177 million are fully vaccinated.
But confirmed cases of the virus have shot up in recent weeks to an average of about 140,000 per day with on average about 1,000 Americans dying from the virus daily.
Sources say that the spread, infections, severe illness, and even death, are occurring among those not yet fully vaccinated against the virus.
Now, federal officials are moving ahead with plans to begin administering booster shots of the Moderna vaccines to increase protection against the more transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Last month, Biden announced plans to make them available beginning on Sept. 20, but only the Pfizer vaccine has received regulatory approval from the FDA, which may slow down the dissemination of the vaccine among the population.
Advisory from officials says that the booster shots could already be administered about eight months after the second dose of the two-dose vaccines.