President Joe Biden is expected to sign a new executive order that would require all federal employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to The Washington Post.
- The order will not allow for people to get a negative COVID-19 test result as an alternative. In many settings, businesses will require either vaccinations or negative COVID-19 tests to prove they’re not infected.
Why is President Biden requiring vaccination?
Biden’s announcement is set to come during a Thursday speech where he will call for a “robust plan to stop the spread of the delta variant and boost COVID-19 vaccinations,” according to The Washington Post.
- The speech is expected to represent Biden’s shift toward getting businesses to require vaccination for employees. And, according to The New York Times, Biden will begin pushing for federal agencies and schools to have stricter vaccination and testing policies as the coronavirus continues to surge.
Sources told The New York Times that the plan will come with the messaging of getting back to normal when people get vaccinated.
Why COVID-19 vaccines are important
That falls in line with what experts have been saying for months. Dr. Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Hospital, told CNN that returning to normal will require high vaccination rates.
- “We’re in the same storm, but we’re not in the same boat. Some of us are in yachts. We have resources. We can work from home, we’re immune-competent, we have access to a vaccine — and some of us are in rafts,” Christakis said.
- “All of us need to do all we can do to help those in less sturdy crafts, and that means getting vaccinated as soon as you can and masking up according to the CDC guidelines,” he said.