Much to the chagrin of health and government officials, many Americans are still not vaccinated for COVID. Reasons vary from fears about how quickly the vaccine was created to concerns about side effects from the vaccine to more sinister conspiracy theories that I dare not broach. We can say based on an abundance of data that those who are vaccinated have less chance of hospitalization and death from COVID. In fact, some studies estimate that unvaccinated individuals are up to 17 times more likely to become hospitalized than those who have received the vaccine.
U.S. officials have grappled with how to combat this vaccine hesitancy. In December, when President Biden was asked about mandating the vaccine, he said “No — I don’t think it should be mandatory. I wouldn’t demand it to be mandatory.” He went on to say, “But I will do everything in my power as President of the United States to encourage people to do the right thing and when they do it, demonstrate that it matters.”
How times have changed.
The delta variant has proven to be a formidable foe: more contagious and possibly more deadly (especially in unvaccinated individuals). That has lead our government and health officials to revisit the need for vaccine mandates.
On Thursday September 9, President Biden announced a six-part plan intended to quash the COVID virus. His plan includes requiring vaccinations for up to 4 million federal workers and directing “O.S.H.A. to develop a rule that will require larger employers — those with at least 100 employees — to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly.” Biden went on to say “A distinct minority of Americans, supported by a distinct minority of elected officials, are keeping us from turning the corner. These pandemic politics, as I refer to them, are making people sick, causing unvaccinated people to die.”
For many medical professionals who have been fighting this virus for the past year and a half, this was welcomed news. However, there are many who are promising to fight this new mandate in the courts. Here in Georgia, our governor Brian Kemp vowed in a tweet, “I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden Administration.”
Welcome to another day in America where everything is political and seemingly no one can agree on anything.
Jeremiah Robinson is a certified and licensed physician associate with T Douglas Gurley MD in Atlanta, GA.