Biden on the road to push benefits of vaccine requirements

President Biden on Thursday aggressively lobbied for vaccine requirements as an effective tool to end the pandemic, arguing mandates had become necessary to turn the corner on the pandemic.

“These requirements work. And as the Business Roundtable and others told me when I announced the first requirement, that encouraged businesses to feel they could come in and demand the same thing of their employees. More people are getting vaccinated. More lives are being saved.”

Biden traveled to Illinois, where the state’s governor and the mayor of Chicago have implemented vaccine requirements for some workers, to lay out the case for why his administration has gotten more forceful in pushing for mandates.

Government officials had exhausted various other options to nudge people to get vaccinated, Biden argued. He said steps officials had taken included purchasing enough vaccines to ensure every American could get the shot, expanding eligibility and access, and offering incentives for those who were still holding out during the summer.

“We have to beat this thing,” Biden said. “So while I didn’t race to do it right away, that’s why I had to move toward requirements that everyone get vaccinated where I had the authority to do that.”

Biden was in Elk Grove Village, a suburb of Chicago, where he toured a construction site being run by Clayco. The company announced Thursday it would be implementing a vaccination or testing requirement for its employees moving forward.