President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is ordinary yet controversial
The requirements will probably increase vaccination rates as long as they are found to be legal
AFTER MONTHS of begging Americans to get themselves vaccinated, President Joe Biden has stopped asking nicely. On September 9th the Biden administration announced a requirement to be vaccinated or tested regularly that will affect everyone who works for a private company with more than 100 employees plus the federal workforce, broadly defined. That is about 100m Americans in all, 25m of whom are not vaccinated. Will it work?
There are clear reasons for taking this unusual step. Only 54% of Americans are fully vaccinated, meaning the nation is lagging behind its peers. In Canada and Britain, 69% and 65% of people are fully vaccinated respectively, according to Oxford University. Japan initially experienced a disastrous rollout. One month before the start of the Olympics in July, only 18% of Japan’s population received the jab. But Japan has now surpassed America in first doses administered (65% compared with 63%). With 663,325 deaths from covid-19, America will shortly exceed the number of fatalities resulting from the 1918 influenza pandemic (675,000).
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Biden’s bidding"
United States September 18th 2021
- America is substantially reducing poverty among children
- President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is ordinary yet controversial
- Salt Lake City is one of the biggest winners of the past decade
- Expect a surge of religious objections to vaccine mandates in America
- Edtech that helps teachers beats edtech that replaces them
- American women will soon become eligible (in theory) for the draft
- The Biden Doctrine has yet to emerge. Beware those who claim otherwise
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