White House reveals Biden will SUPPORT local vaccine mandates by cities, companies and universities but won't use a federal vaccine passport
Joe Biden will support mandates from private and local governments requiring vaccines – but the White House reiterated Monday that the president will not support a federal vaccine passport.
'Does President Biden agree… that at the local level there should be more vaccine mandates?' Fox News' Peter Doocy asked during a press briefing after the top advisor on the pandemic called on Sunday for vaccine mandates.
'That's not a decision we are making,' White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki replied. 'That's not our intention from the federal government.'
'There will be decisions made by private sector entities, by universities, by educational institutions, and even perhaps by local leaders — should they decide that is how to keep their communities safe. If they decide to make that decision, we certainly support them in that step,' she added.
Doocy was referencing Dr. Anthony Fauci's comments to CNN on Sunday, where the top immunologist pushed for more mandates requiring coronavirus vaccines.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that President Joe Biden 'certainly supports' private sector and local governments enacting vaccine mandates
President Joe Biden has maintained, and Psaki reiterated, there will be no federal-level vaccine passport. That assurance comes as at eight GOP states have barred the so-called passports at a state-level among government and private business
'I have been of this opinion and I remain of that opinion that I do believe at the local level, Jake, there should be more mandates, there really should be,' Fauci, who leads the White House's COVID response team, said.
'We're talking about life and death situation,' he told State of the Union host Jake Tapper. 'We've lost 600,000 Americans already, and we're still losing more people. There've been 4 million deaths worldwide. This is serious business.'
The latest push for vaccine requirements comes as the rate of inoculation has plateaued at 68 per cent, and the administration has run out of ideas, according to a Monday report, on how to encourage more to get the jab.
It also comes as Republican lawmakers across the U.S. are pushing for the passage of laws that would give unvaccinated Americans the same anti-discrimination protections.
Among those laws passed is a ban on 'vaccine passports' in private and public sector in GOP states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
A slew of Republicans in other states have proposed such legislation, but many are doomed to fail as they are in Democrat-run areas.
Montana and Arkansas went a step further by signing in law legislation that makes it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of vaccination status – similar to anti-discrimination laws related to gender identity, race and religion.
On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN: 'I have been of this opinion and I remain of that opinion that I do believe at the local level, Jake, there should be more mandates'
Since Psaki did not outright say that Biden supports vaccine passports, the Fox News host pushed in asking if the president is breaking with his message of 'Listen to Dr. Fauci.'
Psaki responded sarcastically to Doocy, who has taken time off lately, 'Welcome back.'
'What Dr. Fauci was conveying is that there will be decisions made by local leaders — just like there will be decisions made by business leaders, by institutional leaders — on how they can keep their communities safe. And we support their right to make those decisions,' Psaki told the reporter for the right-leaning network.
The White House missed Biden's goal of July 4 to get 70 per cent of American adults at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. It also missed the Independence Day deadline to get 160 million Americans fully vaccinated against the disease – meaning at least two weeks past the time when the final dose was administered.