President Joe Biden on Thursday announced far-reaching new vaccine mandates to increase vaccinations across the U.S., targeting about 80 million unvaccinated citizens.
President Biden established a six-part plan to get more people to accept the COVID vaccine, reopen schools safely, increase testing, improve care for COVID patients, and ensure economic recovery. He also bared his impatience on the unvaccinated people, who he blames for the rapid increase in new cases of COVID in the last month.
"Despite having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months, free vaccines have been available at 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot," Biden said, as reported by CNBC.
"What more is there to wait for? What more do you need to see? We've made vaccinations free, safe and convenient. the vaccine has FDA approval, over 200 million Americans have gotten at least one shot."
"We've been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and the refusal has cost all of us," the Democratic leader continued.
"This is not about freedom, or personal choice. It's about protecting yourself and those around you - the people you work with, the people you care about, the people you love."
"We cannot allow these actions to stand in the way of protecting the large majority of Americans who have done their part, who want to get back to life as normal," the 78 year old Commander in Chief said.
As part of his new plan to improve vaccination rates across the board, President Biden announced a new requirement for federal employees to get the COVID vaccine with no option for regular testing, affecting 2.1 million employees. Previously, they were mandated to either get the jab or submit to regular testing.
President Biden also sought the assistance of the U.S. Department of Labor to issue new rules that requires businesses with over 200 employees to mandate vaccines or comply with weekly testing. This new mandate will affect up to 80 million employees in the private sector, as per the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
According to the New York Post, companies that defy the new Labor Department vaccination mandate will be slapped with "substantial fines." Federal employees now have 75 days to get fully vaccinated, with "limited exemptions for reasons such as religious or medical reasons," a senior administration official said.
Under President Biden's sweeping vaccine mandates, the health care order "will apply to 50,000 providers and cover over 17 million health care workers across the country" while the mandate for teachers will apply to about 3,000 in Head Start programs.
Meanwhile, President Biden's sweeping vaccine mandates are not sitting well with conservatives and Republicans. Trending Politics (via NOQ Report) reported that several Republican leaders took to social media to hurl threats of legal action towards the president.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem took to Twitter to share a short message, "South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom. @JoeBiden see you in court."
Georgia's Governor Brian Kemp also threatened legal action, taking to Twitter to declare, "I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration."
