President Joe Biden is expected to announce mandatory Wuhan coronavirus vaccinations for all federal workers on Thursday and his plans are already facing significant backlash. Regular testing will reportedly be offered as an alternative. Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are currently approved for emergency use and have not been fully approved by the FDA.
The American Postal Workers Union, which represents 220,000 employees, is opposed to the vaccine mandate.
"Various media outlets have reported that the White House is considering mandatory COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment for federal employees. Maintaining the health and safety of our members is of paramount importance. While the APWU leadership continues to encourage postal workers to voluntarily get vaccinated, it is not the role of the federal government to mandate vaccinations for the employees we represent," the union released in a statement Wednesday evening. "Issues related to vaccinations and testing for COVID-19 in the workplace must be negotiated with the APWU. At this time the APWU opposes the mandating of COVID-19 vaccinations in relation to U.S. postal workers."
Last week one of the country's largest healthcare unions, United Healthcare Workers, protested in New York City against mandatory vaccinations.
The largest healthcare union in the United States held a rally, protesting one of the biggest hospital group's policies of COVID vaccination or termination. The demonstrators said they shouldn't be required to be vaccinated in order to keep their jobs.
New York-Presbyterian Health System announced the new mandate last month in a company-wide message to its 48,000 employees in which workers were told they must receive at least one shot by September 1.
Members of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East gathered outside the hospital's main campus on 168th Street and Fort Washington Avenue in Washington Heights for the "Trust Our Voices Rally."
"We believe that our members are best equipped to make the healthcare decisions that are right for their bodies and for their families," 1199SEIU Communications Director Cara Noel said. "We have been promoting vaccination, but to make vaccination a condition of employement is absolutely wrong."
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Biden's vaccination mandate comes shortly after the CDC reimplemented mask mandates, even for vaccinate individuals. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said this week that vaccinate people are capable of infecting other vaccinated individuals.
"We put this guidance out because the science demonstrates that if you are vaccinated you could potentially give disease to someone else," Walensky said. "In some fully vaccinated venues if they are unmasked and there are a few people who are transmitting there as a fully vaccinated person, it is possible to pick up disease in those settings."
In this interview CDC Director says the following:
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 28, 2021
-Unvaccinated can infect the vaccinated
-Vaccinated can infect the vaccinated, which was the motivation behind reinstating mask guidelines
-Endorses vaccine passports, even though vaccinated can infect vaccinated https://t.co/Mv16XWIqRM
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