The White House is in the early stages of determining whether to use federal regulatory power, or the threat of withholding funds from entities like nursing homes, as added ways to get private entities to require vaccines, a spokeswoman said Friday.
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“There are early conversations — early discussions — about a range of options,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, adding that the Biden administration is always discussing “policy options about how we can continue to mount a wartime response against the virus.”
The internal discussions were first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday. The White House declined to comment at that time.
The administration is not currently considering using these levers when it comes to universities or cruise ships, Psaki said, although both are arenas where covid-19 has spread significantly and the federal government has clear regulatory authority, according to experts.
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The Post reported that the talks for now are focusing on long-term care facilities, where there has been growing concern that unvaccinated employees are threatening the health of residents.
“There are a range of topics and industries under discussion internally,” Psaki said. “We’re going to make decisions from the federal government that we believe will save lives and we believe will protect the most vulnerable populations.”
The White House has been taking a more aggressive approach over the past two weeks in pushing Americans to get vaccinated. President Biden has told federal employees they must get inoculated or they will have to wear masks and maintain social distance at work, and he has directed the military to examine similar steps.
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Using regulatory power or the threat of withholding funds would be a major escalation of those efforts. The internal discussions reflect a growing worry within the White House, as well as in public health circles, that many Americans continue to refuse vaccines even as the delta variant drives a significant surge in infections.
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More than 120,000 new coronavirus cases were reported nationwide on Thursday, putting the new infection rate on par with early February, before vaccines were widely available. Deaths are also rising, with a 46 percent increase over the past week, according to The Post’s covid tracker, though they remain far lower than their the pre-vaccine peak.
Psaki declined to provide a timeline for any decisions, saying administration officials are weighing the “pros and cons” and that “we’re making all decisions through the prism of what is in the interest of public health.”
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The resurgence of covid-19 threatens to overshadow other administration priorities. Even as Biden gave remarks Friday celebrating a positive jobs report, his remarks included warnings about the pandemic.
“Yes, cases are going to go up before they come back down,” Biden said, stressing that nearly all covid deaths now are among the unvaccinated. “It’s taking a needless toll on our country.”
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Biden said about 400 Americans would die on Friday, adding that “virtually all” of those deaths could have been prevented if the individuals had gotten vaccinated.
Still, the president noted that the threat of the variant has spurred more people to get vaccinated in recent days. Over the past week, the daily vaccination rate has increased by 6 percent, according to the Post tracker.
The White House also announced a new policy requiring visitors and media to attest to their vaccination status via a signed form starting Sunday, according to a memo sent to reporters. Those who refuse or are unvaccinated will have to take a coronavirus test, wear a mask and socially distance at all times while on White House grounds.