With the new Delta variant of the coronavirus surging amongst unvaccinated people in the United States, more businesses are mandating that their employees get vaccinated.
Recently, the Justice Department stated that companies can require vaccinations under crisis use authorization by section 564 of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, according to Politico.
“In light of these developments, you have asked whether the ‘option to accept or refuse’ condition in section 564 prohibits entities from imposing such vaccination requirements while the only available vaccines for COVID-19 remain subject to emergency use authorization,” said the department’s memorandum opinion, which according to Politico was issued for the deputy counsel to the president. "We conclude, consistent with FDA’s interpretation, that it does not."
Federal workers now have to show proof that they have received the COVID-19 vaccine under a mandate by President Biden or abide by wearing masks, weekly, testing and practicing socially distancing, according to the Associated Press.
“Right now, too many people are dying or watching someone they love die and say, ‘If I’d just got the vaccine,’” Biden said during a recent press conference from the East Room of the White House. “This is an American tragedy. People are dying who don’t have to die.”
Biden has called the recent surge in COVID-19-related vaccinations “an epidemic of the unvaccinated” trying to emphasize the importance of being inoculated against the virus, the AP reported. He said unvaccinated people “get sick and fill up our hospitals,” straining healthcare systems throughout the country.
“If in fact you are unvaccinated, you present a problem to yourself, to your family and those with whom you work,” Biden said, according to the AP.
The Associated Press has reported that 60% percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated and 69.3% of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
“It’s an American blessing that we have vaccines for each and every American. It’s such a shame to squander that blessing,” Biden said in the press conference. “This is not about red states and blue states. It’s literally about life and death, life and death.”