Consider This from NPR - Vaccine Mandates Are Spreading Alongside Dangerous Delta Variant

Episode Date: July 30, 2021

The Delta variant is more dangerous and contagious than many experts initially realized. In response to the uptick in cases and hospitalizations countrywide, some government leaders are implementing mask mandates. President Biden announced on Thursday that federal government employees will be asked to attest to their vaccination status. White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients explains what the new requirement will look like. And NPR Correspondent Brian Naylor reports on how federal employees are feeling about this change. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org Peyton Grisham is an emergency room nurse at Houston Methodist Hospital. I've been an ER nurse for five years now. I've worked at Methodist for... Back in April, her hospital told staff that all employees would be required to get vaccinated. Honestly, it freaked me out at first.

She told NPR's Alison Aubrey she knows how real this pandemic is. Grisham was on the front lines when her hospital was overwhelmed by COVID patients last winter, and a lot of those patients died right before her eyes. Still, a mandate to get the vaccine felt different. Being told that you have to have this certain thing done by a certain time or else you could quite possibly lose your job, I think it would freak anyone out. Grisham decided to do her own research and weigh her options. I kept taking a step back and I was like, am I getting freaked out about this because someone's telling me to do it? Or is it because it might actually harm me? In the end, she consulted

her doctor and ultimately got the vaccine. Hospitals around the country have had similar mandates for months. Meanwhile, public health officials have been getting creative with coaxing, pleading, and even offering money to convince more Americans to roll up their sleeves. But this week, government leaders went even further. We hope this would be a simple, straightforward line without problems or new challenges. But that isn't real life. That's President Biden speaking on Thursday. In addition to providing incentives to encourage vaccination,

it's time to impose requirements on key groups to make sure they're vaccinated. Just in the last five days, states from California to New York have said government workers will have to get the vaccine. Some of these new policies offer alternatives, like weekly testing, masking, and social distancing requirements for those who won't get vaccinated. Others don't. Dr. Anthony Fauci told me this pivot is not because health experts have changed their minds. It's that the virus has changed. This is not the original virus that we were dealing with. This has different capabilities, much more efficient in transmitting from person to person.

Consider this. The Delta variant is more dangerous than many experts realized. much more efficient in transmitting from person to person. Consider this. The Delta variant is more dangerous than many experts realized. And as vaccination rates plateau, incentives might not be enough. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Friday, July 30th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. NPR's Planet Money Summer School is back. This season is all about investing. We've got stories of big bets, bubble spotting, and cute animals, too.

Every Wednesday till Labor Day from NPR's Planet Money. It's Consider This from NPR. Vaccinated people have been enjoying a summer of reopening, reuniting with family members, and returning to travel, restaurants, and bars. This week, things seem to change. New evidence shows that the Delta variant can spread even among vaccinated people. And for the 50% of Americans who aren't vaccinated, the threat of serious illness is real. Employers have responded quickly. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which employs more than 100,000 health care workers,

announced Monday that it would mandate coronavirus vaccines for its frontline workers. California and New York announced similar mandates for all government employees. California is committed to vaccination, verification, and or testing on a weekly basis. So in New York and our state hospitals, all patient facing health care workers must get vaccinated. There will be no testing option for patient facing health care workers. That's Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York earlier this week. Then on Thursday, the president spoke at the White House. He entered the room wearing a mask. Every federal government employee will be asked to attest to their vaccination status.

Anyone who does not attest or is not vaccinated will be required to mask no matter where they work, test one or two times a week to see if they've acquired COVID, socially distance, and generally will not be allowed to travel for work. More than 4 million people are going to be affected by that policy. The president also ordered the military to look into a mandate for service members. And major private employers, from the NFL to Google, have introduced their own mandates, along with more than 400 colleges and universities. As the Delta variant spreads, the U.S. needs to get vaccination rates up. So I asked Jeff Zients how much of a difference he expects these mandates to make. He's the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator.

About half of all Americans are fully vaccinated. What's your estimate of the percentage of federal workers and contractors who are fully vaccinated? And how much do you expect this to move the needle? Well, you know, obviously it varies across the country. We have parts of the country that have very high degrees of vaccinations, and those are the areas that generally have lower case rates. And we have parts of the country where the vaccination rates are lower and we have more disease, which is why the president led with what you said, which is he was encouraging everyone to get vaccinated,

everyone to step up and help get people vaccinated, businesses, governors. You saw the governor of Alabama, Governor Ivey, asked people in her state to get vaccinated. Republicans are asking people to get vaccinated more and more. So I think in terms of the federal workforce, the president wants to make sure as people return to work, they return to work safely. At the VA, the Veterans Administration, that health system there will require vaccination so we can protect our veterans. So the vaccines will be mandated there. And across the federal government, people have to attest to being vaccinated. And if they're not vaccinated... You say they have to attest. The president was asked, why not require them to show paperwork? And he kind of dodged that question. Can you answer

that for us? With something this important, why not ask for proof? Yeah, they will attest. There will be other systems. We know that some businesses, some governments, local governments may have other forms of vaccine. But can you tell us why the federal government didn't say, in addition to saying you're vaccinated, you need to show us you're vaccinated. Lots of businesses have done that. Others can do that. The federal government clearly decided not to. Well, the system that we decided to use in the federal government is at that situation.

And we believe that'll be effective. I want to be clear that we're going to continue to look across the President's will, across the federal government. There may be other areas that mandates are required, particularly in healthcare systems. And he's asked Secretary Austin about the Defense Department to make a recommendation about how and when vaccinations will be required for our military as other vaccinations are required. For federal employees, the White House is being careful not to call this a mandate, but the alternative to getting vaccinated seems pretty onerous. Weekly testing, masking, social distancing, no work travel. Is the goal here to make the experience for

unvaccinated people so difficult that nobody would want to choose that path? Well, I think the overall goal is to get as many people vaccinated because that's how we're going to be safe and effective as a country and getting back, returning more and more to normal and beating this pandemic. So safety is driving the protocols. And at the same time, it will be a lot easier to come back to work if you are indeed vaccinated. If you're not vaccinated, as you said, you need to test regularly, mask up independent of where you are, and you will not be able to do much business travel at all. And you also will need to social distance. So it makes so much sense for people to get vaccinated as they return to work. And in general, overall, that's how we're going to beat this pandemic. White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients.

The response from federal workers has been mixed. NPR's Brian Naylor spoke with some of the biggest unions that represent those workers. Paul Sheeran, the head of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents some 25,000 federal employees and agencies, including NASA, thinks the directive is a good idea. We're strongly supportive of mandated vaccines for federal workers. Sheeran says that's as long as there are medical and religious exemptions, but he says everyone deserves a safe workplace. We have well over 600,000 people who are currently dead. We also have a variant of COVID that is running rampant that is highly infectious,

and we want to make sure that we maintain a healthy work environment for the people that we represent and all federal workers in that matter. But other groups have problems with the Biden administration's new rule. The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association issued a statement saying it was concerned by any move that would mandate the vaccine and that, quote, forcing people to undertake a medical procedure is not the American way and is a clear civil rights violation. Ralph DeJulis heads the union that represents some Social Security Administration employees. Everyone is concerned because it's a change and it's unknown. The people who have gotten vaccinated think it's a great thing because now when they have when they do have to go into the offices they know that there's less chance of catching something from a co-worker. But Tachula says workers who aren't vaccinated are very very concerned. He says the government

is going to need to encourage those workers. There hopefully will be some sort of incentive. It will not be stick because having that Q-tip shoved up your nose periodically if you don't get the vaccine, well, that's more of a stick rather than an incentive. The American Postal Workers Union also issued a statement saying it's not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations for the employees we represent, but it seems clear from recent court rulings that employers, including the federal government, do have the right to mandate vaccines to their employees. In fact, the Veterans Administration has already put its mandate into effect. But it also seems clear that there's going to be plenty of pushback from some federal workers to the new requirement.

That's NPR correspondent Brian Naylor. The federal government is by far the largest single employer in the United States. But what about the rest of the country? Even though large companies like Uber and Google have already introduced mandates, about three quarters of employers in the country have not. That could change quickly, especially as an increasing number of workers show support for governments mandating vaccines. A new survey from the COVID States Project shows that over 60% of the public supports the government mandating vaccines.

It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.