U.S. President Joe Biden announced that federal employees must be vaccinated (CNN) against the coronavirus or face strict protocols, and encouraged states and school districts to offer incentives for vaccination. The Department of Defense announced separately that the same rules would apply to military and civilian personnel, and that it was considering adding COVID-19 vaccines to its list of required shots.
Biden’s appeal comes as governments around the world, a number still struggling to acquire vaccine supplies, issue new restrictions to try to control the spread of the virus’s highly contagious Delta variant. France will require health workers to be vaccinated and health passes (NPR) for restaurants and domestic travel, while Israelis are now required to show vaccine certificates (Axios) to attend many social events. The United States has so far avoided such vaccine mandates. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended earlier this week that vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with high transmission. According to unpublished CDC data reported in multiple outlets, the Delta variant is as contagious as chicken pox (CNN), though the approved vaccines are highly effective at preventing serious disease.
Analysis
“State and local health agencies need to have a better understanding of which activities are driving local transmission and tailor policy accordingly,”
