Biden Should Impose Vaccinations ‘With an Iron Fist’
Reactions to president's tough COVID speech, new mandates, run a gamut
Lest anyone think that he had been bloodied or bowed by the recent drubbing he took for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the safe evacuation of more than 120,000 US and Afghan citizens in the process, President Biden came out swinging Thursday with some of his toughest talk yet in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moreover, he announced a raft of sweeping new mandates and enforcement actions aimed at tamping down the spread of the often-deadly disease at a time when cases are back on the rise across the United States.
And reaction to Biden's address to the nation ran a gamut of opinion.
Core to Biden's plans is an imminent new emergency regulation being formulated at the Labor Department, in which medium- and large-size employers will — for the first time — be mandated to require all of their workers get vaccinated.
Cases of COVID-19 were on a steep decline in the spring and early summer months — the results of the Biden administration's aggressive vaccination efforts. However, those on the political right began to organize against the vaccines — often spreading misinformation and outright disinformation about them — and that, combined with the more-virulent Delta variant has come together to fuel this recent resurgence of COVID across the country.
The majority of the American people have had it with the politically motivated anti-vaxxer crowd, as well as right-wing Republican governors — such as Ron DeSantis of Florida — who are trying to prevent any mask mandates whatsoever in their states, even for schoolchildren, according to Steve Schmidt, a former top Republican strategist and “Never Trumper,” who last year endorsed Biden for president.
“I think the majority in this country is enraged over this, about being held hostage by an extremist intransigent junk science-believing minority that is endangering America’s children,” Schmidt said. “We’re in the opening months of what will be the children’s phase of this pandemic. And we will see death of America’s children. And I think there is a lot to be said about how a society treats its children, its most vulnerable citizens.
“And these GOP governors are showing they’re anything but pro-life when it comes to children with their cavalier disregard for the lives of America’s children. And the immunocompromised. And our most vulnerable populations,” he added. “And so here’s the deal as we move into the second year or third year. Someone’s going to lose out. Someone’s going to have to stay home. And let it be the people who would rather take horse dewormer than a safe, viable, effective vaccine that’s saving lives. Someone’s world is going to get smaller.”
The use of Ivermectin, a common drug for the deworming of livestock, has become the latest conspiracy theory-driven and unproven treatment for COVID-19 among those on the right-wing.
Dr Irwin Redlener, a prominent author and public health expert, praised Biden's speech.
"So this is actually an extraordinary speech and one of the most effective set of strategies that we've seen in a very long time when it comes to going after a major public health crisis,” said Dr Redlener, who also serves as an advisor to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This will go down in the annals of major public health wars against things like smallpox and polio.
“As far as children in schools are concerned, he was very specific. And in fact, we saw a kind of an earlier release of the plan today, and it's the opposite of puffery,” he added. “It's filled with absolute hard-core programs and recommendation for everything from teachers and parents to businesses and so on. I'm actually extremely encouraged by what I heard today. A very impressive show.”
On the other hand, Dr Leana Wen, former health commissioner for Baltimore, Md, and a CNN medical contributor, doesn't think that what Biden announced goes far enough.
“All 50 states have laws on the books to require childhood immunizations which we should be looking at the COVID vaccine the same way,” Dr Wen said. “When it comes to employers, I think what the Biden administration did was quite brilliant because it gives air cover for businesses that have wanted to do this, that have wanted to put vaccine mandates in place, but they didn’t want to have their employees complain about them. Now they can say, ‘Hey, we didn’t really want to do this, but the administration — the federal government — is making us do it.’ It also helps to level the playing field so that people aren’t then going to threaten to go to another workplace if every workplace has that same requirement. That’s a good thing.
“I don’t think this is overreach. I think this is what’s needed in the middle of a pandemic, and I think the Biden administration, if anything, could have gone further,” she added.
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