Watch Live: Biden to mandate COVID-19 vaccine for federal employees and contractors
CBSN
Washington — President Biden will announce the most sweeping COVID-19 vaccine requirements yet on Thursday, including a requirement that all employees at companies with at least 100 employees be vaccinated or undergo regular testing. The White House estimates the change will affect more than 80 million workers. Vaccinating the unvaccinated Furthering protection for the vaccinated Keeping schools safely open Increasing testing and requiring masking Protecting our economic recovery Improving care for those with COVID-19
The president is also announcing vaccination requirements for health care providers that accept Medicare and Medicaid, for all federal employees and contractors and for the staffs of Head Start programs, Department of Defense Schools and Bureau of Indian Education-operated schools. Mr. Biden had announced in July the federal workforce would need to provide evidence that they had been vaccinated or submit to regular testing and practice social distancing measures in the workplace. The new mandates are part of a six-pronged White House strategy to battle the COVID-19 Delta variant and boost vaccinations as cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to climb. Mr. Biden plans to lay out the plan in remarks at 5 p.m. on Thursday.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.