WASHINGTON (AP) – The administration of President Joe Biden is pushing for a massive plan to require millions of private sector employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 early next year. But first, you have to make sure that workers in your own federal government get the vaccine.
Approximately 4 million federal workers will be vaccinated before November 22 according to the executive order of the US president. Some employees, like those in the White House, are almost all vaccinated. But rates are lower in other federal agencies, particularly those related to law enforcement and intelligence, according to agencies and union leaders. But some workers are refusing to get vaccinated and are filing lawsuits and protesting what they say is an unfair overreach by the White House.
The upcoming deadline is the first test of Biden’s campaign to force people to get vaccinated. Beyond the federal worker rule, another mandate will take effect in January targeting nearly 84 million private sector workers, according to guidelines released last week.
On Saturday, a federal appeals court in Louisiana temporarily halted the vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers. The administration says it is confident the requirement will overcome legal challenges in part because its safety rules take precedence over state laws.
If the executive orders are successful, they could make the most serious dent in new coronavirus cases since the vaccine first became available, especially with the news last week that children ages 5 to 11 can get the vaccine. making an additional 64 million people eligible. But with two weeks remaining until the federal workers’ deadline, some union leaders say convincing the unvaccinated to change their minds is increasingly difficult.
“I got the vaccine in February, it was my own choice and I thought it would stop the virus,” said Corey Trammel, a correctional officer for the Bureau of Prisons and president of the local union in Louisiana. “But it’s not like that. And now I have people who resign because they are tired of the government overreaching this, they don’t want to get vaccinated. People just don’t trust the government and they just don’t trust this vaccine. “
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Sisak reported from New York. Zeke Miller, Ben Fox, Gary Fields, Hope Yen, and Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.
