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US President Joe Biden wants more Americans to vaccinate
Photo: Andrew Harnik / AP
The president was visibly annoyed.
"We have made great strides in the fight against the coronavirus," announced Joe Biden in the White House.
"But many of us are frustrated by the 80 million who still do not want to be vaccinated."
But our patience is slowly running out. "
Biden is trying to restart the fight against the pandemic and declaring war on vaccination opponents and corona deniers in the country.
With a whole series of measures and vaccination mandates for hospitals, companies and authorities, he wants to massively increase vaccinations in the coming weeks.
The number of infections in the USA has long since assumed catastrophic proportions.
In some parts of the country, such as Louisiana or Florida, many hospitals are working to the limit of their capacity.
A good 150,000 new cases are reported every day, and more than 1,500 Americans are currently dying as a result of an infection.
That is significantly fewer deaths than at the height of the pandemic in January. At that time, more than 3,300 people died a day. But the president's hopes from the summer that the pandemic could soon end have apparently not been fulfilled so far. Now Biden is clearly taking action. The measures he plans are far-reaching. He tries to use his competences as president as far as possible:
Above all, the
requirements for the economy
are new
.
In the future, employees in companies with more than 100 employees are to be obliged to get vaccinated.
If you still refuse the vaccination, you have to have a weekly Covid test.
Failure to comply with the planned rule could result in fines of up to $ 14,000 per case.
In total, the new plan affects around 80 million people in the private sector.
All
employees of the federal authorities
should in principle be
obliged to vaccinate
.
The same applies to companies that do contract work for the federal authorities.
Anyone who does not comply with the mandate must expect disciplinary measures or termination of the contract.
All
employees in nursing homes and hospitals
where people are treated at the expense of government health programs will also have to be
vaccinated
in the future
.
This is a good 17 million people affected.
In addition, Biden announced that it would
expand
the
availability of Covid tests
.
The industry is ordered by presidential decree to produce more tests.
So far, there are hardly any affordable rapid tests for home use in the USA.
In the aviation sector,
fines for passengers who
refuse to wear masks are to be
drastically increased
.
It was unbelievable what was going on in some of the machines, Biden was indignant.
He saw it himself on TV.
Many mask refusers behaved insolently towards the flight crew.
"Finally show more respect," warned the President.
Biden must quickly take countermeasures if he wants to bring the country, but also his presidency, back into calmer waters.
The Afghanistan debacle has let his polls plummet, he simply cannot afford the Covid crisis to slip away completely from him.
After a long hesitation, Biden is now addressing the core of the problem - with the unvaccinated.
As in many other countries, the current wave in the USA mainly affects people who have not yet been given a vaccine.
In addition to children under the age of twelve who are not yet allowed to be vaccinated, these are above all the corona skeptics and corona deniers.
Most of them live in states that have a majority vote for former President Donald Trump.
Vaccination rates of 27 percent
Despite the nationwide availability of free vaccines, the vaccination rate in some states is still well below the national average.
In some parts of Missouri or Tennessee, only 27 percent of the population have been vaccinated.
Overall, around 54 percent of the total population in the United States is now fully vaccinated.
Another 20 percent have received at least one vaccination.
But a good quarter of Americans who could actually be vaccinated reject this.
"A certain minority is preventing the country from overcoming this corona crisis," said Biden.
It shouldn't go on like this.
He can understand the anger many Americans are making about vaccine opponents and corona deniers.
"We all have to pay for their refusal."
Biden and his advisors such as virologist Anthony Fauci are alarmed.
Because the corona crisis of the unvaccinated has long threatened to spread to the whole country.
The economy is already showing the first signs of weakness.
Vaccination breakthroughs have been reported from several countries with a high vaccination rate, and the experts warn of new virus mutations.
Republicans compare Biden to China's president
It remains to be seen whether the new measures will be successful.
Biden had barely finished his speech when numerous Republican governors and MPs spoke up who were outraged by Biden's plans.
You see in the vaccination mandates an attack on the freedom of their voters.
At the same time, they accuse Biden of exceeding his powers as president.
Several Republicans announced lawsuits.
"I will use every legal opportunity to stop these incredible and unlawful regulations by the Biden government," said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
Republican Party headquarters in Washington (RNC) also threatened to bring the government to justice.
Republican Senator Ben Sasse was angry that the catalog of measures was Biden's "cynical attempt" to start a major argument in order to divert attention from his failure to withdraw from Afghanistan shortly before the 9/11 anniversary.
And MP Lauren Boebert, an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, tweeted: You now know why Joe Biden is such a great friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"He's his role model."
