Businesses, health workers, federal contractors face Jan. 4 vaccine deadline

The Biden administration on Thursday unveiled the vaccine-or-test requirement for businesses with over 100 employees and set a deadline of Jan. 4 for employees to be fully vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The administration said it was on strong legal grounds with the rule, which could impact two-thirds of all U.S. workers.

To streamline all the separate requirements, businesses, health workers and federal contractors will now all have the same Jan. 4 deadline. Previously, federal contractors needed to be vaccinated by Dec. 8.

Health workers: A true vaccine mandate for health workers will apply to approximately 76,000 health care facilities and more than 17 million health care workers — the majority of health care workers in the country.

The rule applies to all employees, regardless of whether they are clinical or not. According to administration officials, it also covers students, trainees, and volunteers who work at a facility that receives federal funding from Medicare or Medicaid. There are escalating penalties for facilities that don’t cooperate, from civil monetary penalties to denying payment and up to terminating them from the Medicare or Medicaid programs as a last resort.

There is no testing option; a senior administration official said health workers are being held to a higher bar than other sectors.