At the time he confused a lot of people by declaring that, “We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers. We’re going to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by increasing the share of the workforce that is vaccinated in businesses all across America.” If the vaccines work then the vaccinated are already protected against the unvaccinated, aren't they? But set that quibble aside.
As Geraghty notes, we're two weeks along, and the agency that was to issue the regulations for this mandate, OSHA, has yet to do so. Evidently, reducing the spread is not as urgent as Mr. Biden suggested.
Here's Geraghty:
Almost immediately, businesses had a lot of questions about how this new mandate was going to work. What is considered documentation for proof of vaccination and how will booster vaccinations be factored into compliance? Must an employee be “fully vaccinated” in order to work?Perhaps the reason OSHA (and why is OSHA responsible for this mandate, anyway?) hasn't delivered the answers to these questions is that the folks tasked with developing it see what a quagmire of bureaucratic muck they'd be walking businesses into.
How will the requirements address natural immunity? Will individuals that have contracted COVID-19 be required to be vaccinated or submit to testing requirements?
Will the requirements only apply to vaccines that are fully approved by the FDA? (The other day in my local pharmacy, a guy said he had gotten one shot of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in the United Kingdom and wanted to know whether Pfizer or Moderna was compatible with it.)
What are the consequences of falsifying one’s vaccination status, and does responsibility rest with the individual or employer? If an employee takes a COVID-19 test but the results are not yet available, is the employee allowed to continue to work pending the results?
Should employees choose not to vaccinate, is the company or employee responsible for securing and paying for testing? Will paid time off be required for weekly tests?
Did Mr. Biden think about all this before he issued his statement? Did he consider not only the complicated mess he was imposing on OSHA and the burden he was placing on businesses, but also the constitutionality of what he was doing?
Did he plan this out at all? Did OSHA even know they were going to be told to shoulder this responsibility before the announcement was made?
Mr. Biden has an odd manner. He sometimes makes stern public pronouncements with a steely, Clint Eastwood-like resolve, but then nothing seems to come of them. It's as though as soon as he walks away from the podium he forgets that he ever said what he said.
Sometimes, as with his tough talk about the Taliban and his determination to get all Americans out of Afghanistan, the consequences of the lack of follow-through are awful.
Maybe in the case of the vaccine mandate the consequences of letting the whole thing drop down the memory hole will be agreeable to everyone concerned.
