Vaccine Mandates Are Essential to Stopping Covid-19
President Biden is right to push ahead with new rules for federal employees, large companies and health-care workers.
He’s right to push vaccination against Covid-19.
Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Covid-19 case numbers, which had been steadily falling in the U.S. since the delta variant crested in September, have again plateaued. The decline from more than 200,000 daily cases has been welcome, but why have the numbers now stalled in the 70,000s? Perhaps it’s the colder weather driving people indoors, in closer contact with others, sometimes unmasked. But here’s another crucial factor: Less than 60% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. More people need to get their shots as soon as possible.
This is the simple reason President Joe Biden is right to stand by his vaccine requirements. One of them, a mandate that 4 million federal workers be vaccinated, comes into force on Nov. 22. Another, a Labor Department rule that companies with 100 or more employees see that they are either vaccinated or tested weekly, has a deadline of Jan. 4, 2022. (This requirement will apply to about 84 million people, more than 26 million of whom are not yet vaccinated.) Also on Jan. 4, everyone who works at a hospital, nursing home or other health facility that receives payments from Medicare or Medicaid — about 17 million workers at 76,000 facilities — needs to be vaccinated.