President Joe Biden announced this Thursday, in the penultimate attempt by the White House to stop the rebound in the coronavirus pandemic that affects more than two-thirds of the country, that federal employees must be vaccinated or otherwise undergo tests. of covid-19 and wear a mask, regardless of the work they do. Never before has the president been seen so concerned, imploring his fellow citizens to come get vaccinated, begging them for responsibility to end the nightmare.
The Democratic president’s measure aims to encourage vaccination in the United States, which still does not reach the total of 50% of the population, amid growing outbreaks due to the delta variant of the virus. “We are facing the pandemic of the unvaccinated,” the president declared in a speech from the White House, recalling that 90 million inhabitants remained unvaccinated. Biden repeatedly insisted that neither vaccines nor masks should be a political issue. “This is not about red states [republicanos] or blue states [demócratas]It’s about life or death,” the president proclaimed. From the pulpit offered by the White House, he glossed over the virtues of vaccines with the aim that people go to a place and obtain their inoculation free of charge. “It’s not just about protecting yourself, it’s about protecting others.”
The president spoke of “freedom”, referring to those who wave this word as a right not to get vaccinated. Biden was very explicit in saying that with freedom comes “responsibility” and that being responsible means getting vaccinated. During his speech, the president recounted how people who are seriously hospitalized ask for the vaccine. “No, I’m sorry, it’s too late,” Biden said, putting himself in the shoes of a doctor before an infected and unvaccinated patient.
Fear and misinformation were for Biden the two most important reasons why the US population was putting their family, friends, and neighbors at risk. “Now, go now and get vaccinated,” he encouraged. The only way to overcome the pandemic and leave the deadly virus behind is by listening to science and inoculating yourself, the president said. The president ended his speech with a gesture that he usually makes every time he appears before the press to talk about coronavirus: he took a note from his jacket pocket in which he updates the number of deaths in the US from the pandemic every day. The figure for this Thursday morning was 609,441 deaths. “There are more deaths than those who caused [para los estadounidenses] World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, the 9/11 attacks, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the president concluded.
I know people talk about freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility.
Your decision to be unvaccinated impacts someone else.
Please get vaccinated. For yourself. For the people you love. And for your country.
President Biden (@POTUS) July 29, 2021
Biden does not force citizens to get vaccinated, but he is determined to serve as an example to the private sector, companies and institutions so that workers return to their workplaces. The federal government is the largest employer in the United States, with more than two million civilian workers and nearly 570,000 wage earners working in the US postal service. The president announced more incentives for people who get vaccinated, such as getting $100 in exchange for getting an inoculation or paying for the hours of work that companies say they miss out on going to get a shot.
The politicization of the pandemic increases
With each passing day, the politicization of the pandemic is greater. Republicans in Congress are expressing their complaints these days after health authorities announced the need to back to masks, even in the case of vaccinated people. As an example of the existing confrontation in the country is the case of the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, that last Wednesday he took his son out of a summer camp where he had to wear a mask. “Experts have communicated their legitimate fears that masks harm more than they protect, since they can negatively impact your learning, speech, and emotional and physical health,” the Republican declared Thursday.
In the face of the social and political storm that is here to stay, there are many voices that are raised on both sides, whether they are those in favor of imposing face masks or those who continue to defend their right not to be vaccinated. All this when more than 70% of the country lives in areas where there is a “high” or “significant” risk of contagion. This Thursday, Washington, the nation’s capital, announced the mandatory use of masks in closed places, thus retracing what had been done since April.
In the political battle, the president of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, last Wednesday described the minority leader in Congress as an “idiot”, after Kevin McCarthy expressed that the new regulations recommended by the health authorities for vaccinated people to wear a mask again was “against science”. “Make no mistake,” said the Republican, “the threat of returning to masks is not a decision made scientifically but a conspiracy by a leftist government that wants us to live perpetually in a state of pandemic.”
Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Republican leaders have insisted that recommendations to protect themselves from covid-19, such as the use of the mask, infringe individual freedom. “The Vaccine and Mask Orders: Harassment, Control, Unconstitutionality, Threats to Liberty!” Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice wrote on Twitter. That is the level of political polarization that is experienced every day in the US regarding covid-19.
To date, New York and California have already warned that, starting next September 6 (the Labor Day holiday in the US), they will require all public employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly tests for coronavirus. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was working with unions to get the program up and running “quickly and fairly.”
Starting this week, workers in hospitals managed by the State of New York (and who have contact with patients) will be required to be vaccinated, with no option to substitute a test. Other states such as California have already announced similar measures and, according to various media, the government headed by Joe Biden is considering doing the same with employees of the federal Administration.
All states show an uptick in infections, but the delta variant is wreaking havoc in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida. Starting this Wednesday, in Arkansas it is mandatory to wear a mask. In early July, Louisiana was averaging fewer than 400 cases a day and now has more than 2,400, the most since January. Jacksonville, Florida, is averaging more than 900 cases a day. Compared to the previous week, cases in the US have increased by 65% and deaths from coronavirus by 22%.
About 97% of hospitalized coronavirus patients have not been vaccinated, a figure that measures the need for vaccination. The total cases in the US amounts to more than 34 million people and deaths exceed 610,000. Much to President Biden’s chagrin, less than half of US citizens (and 59% of adults) are fully vaccinated. Within the segment of the population over 65 years of age, 90% have had at least one dose inoculated and 80% are fully vaccinated. Vaccination figures fall when age decreases, only 59% of those over 18 years of age have the complete immunization schedule.
Just when some states are preparing to open schools in two weeks, as is the case in Virginia, cases of covid-19 among children are increasing. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reported last week more than 23,550 cases of covid-19 in minors, between July 8 and 15, almost double what was reported at the end of June. Today about 39,000 children suffer from the disease and about 400 have died from it.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has emphasized the need to take the virus seriously and the threat it poses to the little ones. “It is a mistake to say that only 400 of these 600,000 deaths from covid-19 have been in children,” said Rochelle Walensky, at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “Children are not supposed to die. Therefore, 400 is a large amount.”
So far, no covid-19 vaccine has been given the green light for children under 12 years of age. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna are still conducting clinical trials, but it will likely be months before those children can receive a vaccine.
Faced with a map increasingly covered in red and orange, due to the serious increase in cases, the Biden Administration has decided to maintain the existing restrictions for those who want to travel to the United States. According to White House sources, quoted by the Reuters agency, “at least for now” it will continue to be prohibited to enter the US for those who are not US citizens and have spent the last 14 days in any of the 26 countries of the Union. European that belong to the Schengen area, Ireland, United Kingdom, China, India, South Africa, Iran or Brazil.
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