Appearing in a Chicago suburb Thursday afternoon, President Joe Biden defended his use of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, saying “I know the vaccination requirements are tough medicine. Unpopular with some. Politics for others. But they’re life-saving. They’re game-changing for our country.”
Biden said that embracing mandates “wasn’t my first instinct” but added “these requirements work…More people are getting vaccinated, more lives are being saved.” He pointed to a 40% reduction in COVID-19 cases over the past month. In August, he announced mandates that impact 100 million American workers. As of Thursday, 56.6% of the entire U.S. population is fully vaccinated.
“We’re headed in the right direction if we keep our eye on the ball,” Biden said.
Biden boasted that many companies are complying with mandates without running into employee pushback. “This I always get a kick out of: Fox News, Fox News requires vaccination for all employees.”
Biden made his remarks at a construction site in Elks Grove Village, Illinois. Clayco, the firm managing the construction, announced Thursday it was adopting a vaccine-or-test requirement for all employees.
“Today, I’m calling on more employers to act. My message is require your employees to get vaccinated. With vaccinations, we’re going to beat this pandemic,” Biden said.
Without increased inoculation, Biden warned that the nation faces “endless months of chaos in our hospitals, damage to our economy and anxiety in our schools and empty restaurants, much less commerce.”
The president also said the U.S. must act in its own “own naked self-interest to help other countries” procure vaccines.
“You can’t build a wall high enough to keep out a virus,” Biden said.
Ahead of Biden’s appearance, the White House released a report touting the success of vaccine mandates, noting that “when the President announced the first requirement for the federal government [in July], 95 million eligible Americans were unvaccinated. Today, only 67 million are unvaccinated.”
The report adds, “when organizations implement vaccination requirements, vaccination rates have soared to 90% or greater among the workforce.”
While visiting the Midwest, Biden plans to underscore that point by meeting with United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby. The company says 99.5% of its employees have been vaccinated, not counting those that qualified for legitimate exemptions.
“A similar trend is happening right now at Tyson Foods,” notes the report. “On August 3, when Arkansas based Tyson Foods announced its employees would need to be vaccinated, only 45% of its workforce had gotten a shot. Today, that number stands at 91%. That’s a 102% increase in two months.”
The White House also outlined the impact widespread inoculation would have on the labor market, citing analysis from Goldman Sachs which asserts that “increased vaccination coverage could result in as many as 5 million American workers going back to work.”
Goldman Sachs also noted that vaccines will limit work absences. In early September, millions of Americans took time off because of a COVID-19 infection.
The White House report also cited data indicating that economic activity – including restaurant and hotel reservations – will tick up as more Americans seek out inoculation.
“The unvaccinated also put our economy at risk, because people are reluctant to go out,” Biden explained.
