One million American workers will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by January 4, otherwise they will have to undergo very routine tests, the administration of President Joe Biden announced Thursday.
Also read: Live | Recent developments on coronavirus
This vaccine responsibility for employees of companies of more than 100 individuals, workers in the medical world and contractors of federal agencies is one of the most serious measures taken by the United States government to curb the rampant epidemic. Economic recovery.
“There is a single fixed deadline for all three categories: January 4, 2022.”
President Biden unveiled the move in a speech to the White House in September, which is expected to affect more than two-thirds of the country’s employees. According to him, it is likely to screw up millions of Americans who “turn the page” on coronavirus and still refuse to be vaccinated.
Several companies, including meat giant Tyson Foods or airline United Airlines, have already prepared the ground by imposing these responsibilities on their employees by the end of September.
Recently, several US media outlets reported that Ford Automaker Ford had asked its 32,000 employees to be vaccinated by December 8, except in the case of religious or medical exemptions.
But in a country where there is personal freedom, this action provokes an outcry in the Republican opposition, which condemns “dictatorship”.
“The point is, vaccine bonds work,” a senior U.S. official estimates, “which could help vaccinate millions of Americans, save workers’ lives, save our economy, and accelerate our exit from the pandemic.”
Fueled from the summer by the Delta variant, the pandemic has already killed 750,000 people in the United States.
President Biden, who was elected head of the world’s largest economic power almost a year ago, has made the fight against COVID-19 one of the hallmarks of his presidency.
But the massive American vaccination campaign, conducted at full speed, evaporated, increasing the pollution rate and somewhat hampering the economic recovery promised by the Democratic leader.
Persuading adults who are unwilling to receive the vaccine is no easy task, especially since many American states, including Texas, have already banned vaccine obligations on their soil.
In a survey released last month by the Society for Human Resource Management, 90% of surveyed owners found it difficult to implement the vaccine requirement.
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