Biden eyes tougher vaccine rules without provoking backlash – KIRO 7 News Seattle

WASHINGTON – (AP) – When the pace of vaccination slowed in the US for the first time, President Joe Biden endorsed incentives such as multi-million dollar lotteries when needed to get firearms. But with new coronavirus infections skyrocketing, he’s testing a tougher approach.

It is only in the past two weeks that Biden has been forcing millions of federal employees to confirm their vaccination status or face burdensome new demands. He has met with business leaders in the White House to urge them to do the same.

In the meantime, the government has taken steps to require gunshots to be made mandatory for people entering the United States from overseas. And the White House is weighing options to become more assertive at the state and local levels, including possible support for school districts that impose rules to prevent the virus from spreading against opposition from Republican leaders.

“To the mayors, school principals, educators, local leaders who oppose the governors who politicize mask protection for our children: Thank you,” said Biden on Thursday. “Thank God we have heroes like you, and I stand by you all, and America should too.”

But even as Biden became more aggressive, he failed to use all his powers to pressure Americans to get vaccinated. For example, he has been reluctant to propose vaccinations for all air travelers or for federal workers. The result is a precarious balancing act as Biden works to make life more inconvenient for the unvaccinated without creating a backlash in a deeply polarized country that would only undermine his public health goals.

Vaccine mandates are “the right lever at the right time,” said Ben Wakana, deputy director of strategic communications and engagement for the White House’s COVID-19 response, noting the increasing public trust in vaccines, adding that it does marks a new phase in the government’s campaign to encourage Americans to get shot.

Many Republicans, especially those with their eye on the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, disagree and warn against going beyond federal in decisions that should be left to individuals. Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, an epicenter of the latest virus wave, have argued for weeks over the proper role of government during a public health crisis.

There is notable support for vaccine mandates. According to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 51% of Americans say the federal government should recommend employers that their workers get vaccinated, while 45% say they shouldn’t.

So far, Biden has required most federal employees to certify their vaccination status as part of potential criminal penalties, with those who haven’t received a dose required for social distancing being tested for the virus weekly and facing other possible restrictions on their work .

Health workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Health and Human Services are required to be vaccinated, and the Pentagon has announced plans to make vaccines mandatory for the military by next month.

The federal government’s tougher approach comes from the fact that nearly 90 million eligible Americans have still not been vaccinated, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, says syringes are the only way for the nation to contain the Delta variant.

White House officials say Biden will initially operate cautiously to ensure the Americans are ready for the federal government’s heavy armament. Federal steps have been carefully calibrated to encourage a wave of businesses and governments to follow suit.

Biden government officials briefed prominent Washington trade groups, including the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, ahead of the federal announcement, in the hope that their members would follow suit. White House officials have received dozens of calls from executives in the past few weeks about how to implement their own vaccination regulations, officials said, sharing best practices and tips for protecting their workforce.

“Vaccination regulations give employers the power to help end the pandemic,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday, naming companies, universities and local governments that have implemented them.

The new restrictions seem to be having the desired effect. The rules, combined with new concerns about the emerging Delta variant, have nearly doubled the average rate at which Americans are re-vaccinated in the past month, to about 450,000 a day.

Zients said the White House still has no plans to develop the infrastructure for so-called vaccine passports, despite some criticism from companies that the patchwork of local and state verification systems leaves them with no clear way of enforcing mandates. The Biden government had promised to share frameworks for verification systems but ultimately left them all to the private sector and local governments, in part because of political sensitivities.

Although more serious measures such as mandating vaccines for interstate travel or changing the reimbursement of treatment by the federal government for those who are not vaccinated and who contract COVID-19 have been discussed, the government feared they would be too polarizing at the moment.

This does not mean that they will no longer be implemented in the future, as public opinion has increasingly moved to demand vaccinations as a means of restoring normalcy.

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of health law at Georgetown University, said Biden likely needs to further increase the pressure on those vaccinated. “He will really have to use all the leverage effects of the federal government and actually use pressure points,” said Gostin. “And I think there are a few he can do. But he hasn’t done it yet. “

“The country is completely exhausted with lockdowns, business closures and maskings,” added Gostin, “and vaccines are literally our only tool. We tried to mask distant occupancy restrictions, even entire locks, since we’ve been coming for almost two years. And the virus keeps raging back. And the vaccines are all we have now to defeat the virus. We need to use this tool and we need to use it vigorously. And I think there will be a lot of public support for that. “

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