U.S. President Joe Biden today announced sweeping and tough new pandemic requirements for millions of federal workers and contractors.
Meantime, he sent a desperate plea to Americans, asking eligible yet unvaccinated Americans to get a vaccine once and for all.
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Tough talk from President Joe Biden today on the country's outlook as he lamented the "American tragedy" of rising yet preventable COVID infections, hospitalisations and deaths among the unvaccinated.
This came as the President today announced sweeping new pandemic requirements for millions of federal workers and contractors in the country.
Enunciating his plans, Biden said federal workers will be required to sign forms attesting their vaccination status.
"Next, every federal government employee will be asked to attest to their vaccination status. Anyone who does not attest or is not vaccinated will be required to mask no matter where they work; test one or two times a week to see if they have a - they have acquired COVID; socially distance; and generally will not be allowed to travel for work." Said Biden.
The strict new guidelines mainly target a huge number of Americans who draw federal paychecks. This is also aimed at setting an example for private employers across the country, with the hope of inviting them to follow suit.
As to the benefits of implementing the aforementioned tough vaccination rules:
"We all want our lives to get back to normal, and fully vaccinated work places will - will make that happen more quickly and more successfully. We all know that in our gut. With incentives and mandates, we can make a huge difference and save a lot of lives." Said Biden.
Utterly fed up with persistent vaccine resistance among many conservative Americans, Biden reprimanded them, and called on Americans to get a life-saving vaccine once and for all.
Biden said, "It's an American blessing that we have vaccines for each and every American. It's just such a shame to squander that blessing. This is an American tragedy. People are dying and will die who don't have to die. If you're out there unvaccinated, you don't have to die."
Meanwhile, he sympathised with those who are already vaccinated, saying America, as a whole, will have to bear the consequences of the minority of Americans failing to get vaccinated.
While the surge in infections bespeaks the beginning of yet another crisis, in addition to those plaguing America now, the President once again stressed the U.S. is not out of the woods yet, and sent a desperate plea to Americans, asking them not to stand down in the face of setbacks in the fight against the pandemic.
He had set a July 4 goal to get at least one shot in 70 percent of American adults. But thus far, the latest figure is still at 69.3 percent. And significant resistance from conservative Americans, mainly Republicans continues to be a drag on the country's vaccination rate.
The President has repeatedly warned that the new wave of the Delta variant would stall the nation's fragile economic recovery and return to normalcy, should a lot of Americans remain unvaccinated.
But in retrospect, the U.S. has literally overcome a lot of insurmountable difficulties, as Biden did laud some of the most outspoken Republican lawmakers for prodding conservative Americans into getting inoculated and pushing back against scepticism among many unvaccinated Americans, who remain susceptible to COVID.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of COVID shots have been saved from the trash after U.S. regulators extended their expiration date twice, in an effort to salvage expiring shots in the nation's battle against a deadly summer surge.
It goes without saying, pushback is certain to Biden's action. He is now caught between a rock and a hard place because there're already strong calls demanding him map out the plans again. And he's now in the centre of a fierce and emotional debate over whether the government has the know-how to avert more outbreak.
As the United States continues to be riddled with tons of COVID infections, many Americans are not only wondering when the U.S. will finally be able to stamp out the virus, but also hoping anti-virus measures and new vaccination rules will save the U.S. from coming apart at the seams.
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