Biden COVID-19 Adviser: Vaccine Mandate on Private Businesses Will Be Ready ‘Soon’
(The Epoch Times, Oct 28, 2021)
White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said the administration is planning to finalize its vaccine mandate for companies in the near future and claimed the supply chain crunch won’t be worsened, because employees will comply.
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent the text of the rule, requiring firms with 100 or more workers to be vaccinated or submit to testing, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) earlier this month. It came about a month after President Joe Biden announced the coming mandate, which drew significant criticism from Republicans, questions from business leaders about how it would be implemented, and lawsuits.
“The rule will be finalized soon, but we know businesses are already acting,” Zients said during a COVID-19 briefing on Oct. 27.
During the briefing, Zients—who also referenced OSHA having sent text of the rule to the OMB—couldn’t provide a firm timeline on when the OSHA rule would actually be implemented and provided no other details. Biden also announced mandates for federal workers, federal contractors, and most health care staff, with no option for weekly testing.
But in recent weeks, a number of business leaders, the heads of truckers organizations, air cargo groups, manufacturing groups, and retail associations sent warnings to the Biden administration about the mandate. They argued that the rule would exacerbate supply chain bottlenecks and could trigger chaos.