Joe Biden announced yesterday that the Department of Labor was mandating that all employers with 100 employees or more require Covid-19 vaccinations for their employees or have company-wide negative Covid-19 testing every week. The mandate extends to healthcare workers in facilities that accept Medicaid and Medicare, and all executive branch federal employees and federal contractors — all of these employees must be vaccinated.
Reporter Ryan Grim of @The Intercept joins Sam Seder to discuss Biden's announcement and the potential reactionary repercussions from anti-vaxxer Republicans who are likely to feel targeted and angry by the administration's rhetoric and actions.
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Sam Seder: The Biden administration announced last night sweeping vaccine mandates for federal workers, for federal contractors, and under the auspices of OSHA — this is the office of safety health and administration in the federal government, this is the agency that says um you must have proper ventilation for your workers in a pandemic, you must have other practices to maintain the safety and health of your employees — well, they will issue another regulation, which is your employees, if you have a entity that is over a hundred employees, must be vaccinated or must receive testing on a weekly basis. It's not so much a mandate for the private sector as much as it is an ultimatum on this regulation. Here is Joe Biden announcing this. In addition, there are other aspects of this, and here's Joe Biden.
JB: We need to do more. 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. My job as president is to protect all Americans, so tonight I'm announcing that the Department of Labor is developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees, that together employ over 80 million workers, to ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week. Some of the biggest companies are already requiring this: United Airlines, Disney, Tyson's Food, and even Fox News. The bottom line is we're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers. We're going to reduce the spread of Covid-19 by increasing the share of the workforce that is vaccinated in businesses all across America. My plan will extend the vaccination requirements that i previously issued in the health care field already. I've announced we'll be requiring vaccinations at all nursing home workers who treat patients on Medicare and Medicaid because I have that federal authority. Tonight, I'm using that same authority to expand that to cover those who work in hospitals, home health care facilities, or other medical facilities — a total of 17 million health care workers. If you're seeking care at a health facility, you should be able to know that the people treating you are vaccinated. Simple, straightforward, period. Next, I will sign an executive order that will now require all executive branch federal employees to be vaccinated, and i've signed another executive order that will require federal contractors to do the same. If you want to work with the federal government and do business with us, get vaccinated.
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SS: There's even more data than there was a couple months ago that the vaccination, protects you from the Delta variant in terms of of catching it, but also enormous protection in terms of getting seriously ill. So from the public policy standpoint, I think it's pretty clear why you do this, but let's talk about the politics behind this.
Ryan Grim: Yeah. So it's interesting. On the one hand, I think they they resisted doing this as long as possible. You know, they were they were hoping that this surge... that there would not be a surge. They were hoping like the rest of us were in the spring that it was going to wane. We're going to have a hot girl summer. You know, we're moving on with our lives, and everything's opening up. That didn't happen. Thousands of people dying a day. And so on the one hand, they're they're pushed into this situation. But I do think actually there is an argument to be made that the politics work out for them now.
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