President Biden issued a mandate that requires all federal employees – including members of the U.S. military, long-term care workers who serve Medicare and Medicaid enrollees, and federal contractors – to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, revoking their ability to receive regular COVID-19 tests as an alternative to vaccination.
This is part of a six-part plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the face of rising cases due to the Delta variant.
The President also directed the Labor Department to draft new emergency rules requiring businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure all workers are either vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 once a week. Companies that do not comply would face thousands of dollars in fines per employee.
Prior to this proclamation, the uptick in COVID-19 cases has pushed vaccine mandates. Already there was a long list of local governments, businesses, and other organizations requiring employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, especially after the FDA approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Before the White House issued their mandate, some form of vaccine mandates have been enacted by the following organizations and/or jurisdictions:
- Certain employees of Delta Airlines, United Airlines, CVS, Goldman Sachs, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, McDonalds, Facebook, Google, NBCUniversal, Microsoft and more
- Employees of city governments in Seattle, Portland, Tampa, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other major cities
- Healthcare workers in Connecticut and New Jersey
- Teachers in New York City
