On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” White House COVID Response Coordinator Jeff Zients stated that President Joe Biden went back on his previous statements that the administration wouldn’t do vaccine mandates because “the Delta variant has proven to be more transmissible and more contagious.” And vaccine mandates in some parts of the government and private sector have worked.
Host Erin Burnett asked, “Jen Psaki, on July 25, said, very clearly, that the Biden administration wasn’t going to do vaccine mandates. But as the weeks passed, something changed. Tell me what changed.”
Zients responded, “First of all, Erin, thank you for having me on the show. I think the Delta variant has proven to be more transmissible and more contagious. And at the same time, the president led with vaccine requirements about a month ago, starting at the Veteran Affairs hospitals across the country, with a vaccine mandate for all healthcare workers. The Department of Defense followed. And we’re seeing, in the private sector, many businesses are requiring vaccination, universities, states, and other institutions. And what we’re seeing is that they work. They increase the rates of vaccination dramatically. And so, therefore, given that we do have a group of people in this country who have decided not to get vaccinated to date, we are very confident that pulling this lever of vaccination requirements across 100 million workers will have a big impact.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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