President Biden pushes vaccine mandates to boost US economy

US president Joe Biden on Thursday championed Covid-19 vaccination requirements, determined that the roughly 67 million unvaccinated American adults must receive the shot even as he acknowledged that mandates were not his “first instinct”.

Mr Biden had ruled out such requirements before taking office in January, but they now are a tactic he feels forced into using by a slice of the public that has refused to be vaccinated.

“There is no other way to beat the pandemic than to get the vast majority of the American people vaccinated,” Mr Biden said in suburban Chicago at an event promoting the mandates."

“While I didn’t race to do it right away, that’s why I’ve had to move toward requirements.”

In the coming weeks, more than 100 million Americans will be subject to vaccine requirements ordered by Mr Biden. And his administration is encouraging employers to take additional steps voluntarily that would push vaccines on people or subject them to onerous testing requirements.

But the requirements have drawn widespread public support. People are hoping to put behind them a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 700,000 in the US, and businesses see vaccinations as a road map toward a revitalised economy.