President Joe Biden, in his first remarks since unveiling an extensive plan to push two-thirds of American workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, said Friday that his mandates will withstand challenges by Republicans who said they plan to defy them.
"Have at it," said Biden, who was delivering remarks at a middle school in Washington, D.C. "I am so disappointed, particularly that some of the Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities."
A day earlier, the president unveiled a series of actions through a combination of executive orders and new federal rules. The administration moved to mandate shots for health care workers, federal contractors and the vast majority of federal workers, who could face disciplinary action if they refuse.
"I do not know of any scientist out there in this field that does not think it makes considerable sense to do the six things I have suggested," Biden said.
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Republicans quickly moved to call the administration's plan unconstitutional, and a handful of Republican governors, including Brian Kemp of Georgia, have threatened to challenge the mandates in court. Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, described the measures as unconstitutional and said on Twitter that the organization would sue.
Legal experts say broad provisions given to the federal government and the public health emergency caused by the coronavirus could ultimately protect against legal challenges. Jennifer Shinall, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, said the mandate for federal workers is almost certain to encounter lawsuits, but they are likely to fail.
"As long as there are provisions for workers not healthy enough to get the vaccine and probably to some extent religious accommodations," Shinall said, "I think that the legal challenges fail."
Biden on Friday predicted that his orders will survive legal challenges.
Initially reluctant to enact mandates, the president is now moving more aggressively than any other president in modern history to require vaccinations. There is substantial focus on keeping schools safely reopened for in-person learning.
The new requirements apply to people who teach in Head Start programs, Department of Defense schools and schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education. Collectively, those schools serve more than 1 million children and employ nearly 300,000 people, according to administration officials.
Biden visited the Washington school Friday to push the new plan.
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"I want folks to know that we're going to be OK," Biden said at Brookland Middle School, a short drive from the White House. "We know what it takes to keep our kids safe and our schools open."
But as the surging delta variant casts uncertainty over the start of a new school year -- in some cases prompting schools to shut down after a few days -- it's unclear if the plan goes far enough to prevent mass disruption. Biden has little direct authority over most schools, which are generally governed at the local level.
Biden urged states to issue their own vaccine requirements for school workers.
"About 90% of school staff and teachers are vaccinated -- we should have that at 100%," Biden said. "I'm calling on all of the governors to require vaccination for all teachers and staff."
Governors in a few states -- including in California, Oregon, New Jersey and New York -- have already done so. But most leave it up to school districts, and some Republican-led states have barred mandates.
On Friday, Biden rebuked Republican governors who vowed to fight his new rules.
"We're playing for real here," he said. "This isn't a game."
But most of his remarks struck a more conciliatory tone than his Thursday speech in which he vented his frustration with those who remain unvaccinated. He returned to a message of unity Friday, insisting that "we've got to come together" to beat the virus.
STUDIES OUT
People who were not fully vaccinated this year were more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and 11 times more likely to die of covid-19 than those who were fully vaccinated, according to one of three major studies published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The studies also highlight the continued efficacy of all three vaccines amid the spread of the delta variant.
A second study showed that the Moderna vaccine was moderately more effective in preventing hospitalizations than its counterparts from Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson. That assessment was based on the largest U.S. study of the real-world effectiveness of all three vaccines, involving about 32,000 patients seen in hospitals, emergency departments and urgent-care clinics across nine states from June through early August.
While the three vaccines were collectively 86% effective in preventing hospitalization, protection was significantly higher among Moderna recipients (95%) than among those who got Pfizer-BioNTech (80%) or Johnson & Johnson (60%).
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That finding echoes a smaller study by the Mayo Clinic Health System in August, not yet peer-reviewed, which also showed the Moderna vaccine with higher effectiveness than Pfizer-BioNTech at preventing infections during the delta wave.
Noting the effectiveness of all vaccines against severe illness and death, public health officials have continued to urge people to get whatever vaccine is available rather than shop around and delay inoculations.
"The bottom line is this: We have the scientific tools we need to turn the corner on this pandemic," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House covid-19 briefing Friday. "Vaccination works and will protect us from the severe complications of covid-19."
POLITICAL DIVIDE
Biden's mandates immediately deepened the nation's political divisions over vaccinations and government power.
Republican leaders issued outright condemnations, calling the mandates a big-government attack on personal freedoms and private business. Governors from Texas to Missouri and Georgia threatened to fight back.
Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina said he would fight Biden and his party "to the gates of hell."
Several Republican governors vowed to go to court to challenge the constitutionality of the rules, setting the stage for one of the nation's most consequential legal battles over public health since Republicans sued to overturn the Affordable Care Act.
"@JoeBiden see you in court," Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota wrote on Twitter.
Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson is considering a special session to challenge Biden's plan. He told the Kansas City Star on Friday that Missouri will oppose the White House initiative on "multiple fronts."
"I don't plan on letting that happen in Missouri," Parson said of the mandate-or-testing proposals. "I think the president is totally wrong on the policy he's setting forth."
Republican House leaders in a joint statement called Biden's move "an abusive overreach by Washington D.C. bureaucrats who are out of touch with what is best for Missouri businesses and families."
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the mandates "an assault on private businesses" and said the state is "already working to halt this power grab."
Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon said he asked his state's attorney general "to stand prepared to take all actions to oppose this administration's unconstitutional overreach of executive power."
Kemp pledged to "pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration."
SUPPORT FROM SOME
Some employers and business groups welcomed the new requirements. Labor unions representing millions of workers expressed a mix of support and reservations.
Across the country, the more urgent worry for many businesses was how to carry out and enforce new rules that the president estimated would affect 100 million Americans.
Businesses wondered: How would they verify a worker's vaccination status or track the weekly tests required for workers who do not get vaccinated? How would the rules be enforced? What would happen to workers or companies who refused to comply?
Yet the new mandates could take some pressure off businesses and iron out the jumble of requirements. Many companies, including United Airlines and Tyson Foods, were already moving toward requiring vaccinations.
A powerful lobbying group released a statement supporting the administration's orders: "Business Roundtable welcomes the Biden administration's continued vigilance in the fight against COVID," said the group, whose members include leaders of General Electric, Amazon, Goldman Sachs and dozens of other large companies.
"America's business leaders know how critical vaccination and testing are in defeating the pandemic."
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But there's another worry for large businesses: With help-wanted signs up almost everywhere, some could lose valuable employees or won't be able to find new ones.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said the vaccinations mandate could go a long way to boost the economy.
"The evidence across countries is that more vaccinations means fewer infections, hospitalizations and deaths, which in turn means a stronger economy," he said.
But even those who favor Biden's decision as a way to stop the coronavirus from spreading further are afraid that vaccination-averse workers will quit, or job seekers won't apply for openings. Some workers may also switch to smaller companies where shots aren't required.
"In a tight marketplace, it's very difficult to find employees, much less to keep our current employees," said Jonathan Chariff, CEO of South Motors, a group of 12 auto dealerships in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area with more than 1,100 workers. "It's easy for them to go and find another job elsewhere."
To be sure, the mandate could make some employees more comfortable working with others in tight spaces. Chariff said his company supports Biden's move and wants to make sure all workers are vaccinated to keep them safe, especially after two employees died from the virus. However, the company decided against requiring them because of the labor shortage. Right now, Chariff has 80 to 100 openings.
Karl Wadensten, CEO of Richmond, R.I.-based VIBCO Vibrators, was an early adopter of masks, weekly virus testing and temperature checks, and has encouraged vaccinations, but fears he'd lose employees if he forced them to get shots.
Wadensten, whose company makes industrial vibrators used in dump trucks and other applications, said Friday that he is waiting for more clarity about what the Biden orders will mean for his business, which has a small number of government contracts. His workforce has been hovering at about 100 employees, with about 85% of them vaccinated.
"For that other 15%, it would be detrimental to their beliefs and values that they have," he said.
Conversely, smaller companies see being exempt as an advantage. Like other businesses, Alan Dietrich, CEO of Crater Lake Spirits in Bend, Ore., is facing staff shortages. He has 36 workers, with an immediate need for two or three more.
"Being left out of the mandate is helpful for hiring," he said. "We are still finding that a small but meaningful number of people in our area are vaccine-hesitant, and staffing is so tough that even one person is significant to us."
On the other hand, he said, the business is more susceptible to slowdowns or shutdowns because of positive tests. A statewide mask mandate "definitely helps keep our staff safer," he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Katie Rogers, Jack Healy, Richard Fausset and J. David Goodman of The New York Times; by Collin Binkley, Tom Krisher, Barbara Ortutay, Anne D'Innocenzio, Joseph Pisani, Mae Anderson, Zeke Miller, Paul Wiseman, Michael Liedtke, David Koenig, Matt O'Brien, Alex Veiga and additional staff members of The Associated Press; and by Lena H. Sun, Joel Achenbach, Annabelle Timsit and Eugene Scott of The Washington Post.