The newspaper wrote that the new national rules will be officially published on Friday. Companies that do not comply with this risk will be fined hefty. It can be as high as $13,000 (more than $11,000) per violation or $136,000 if the rules are intentionally ignored. Companies may require employees who refuse to be vaccinated to pay for their own coronavirus tests.
The administration of President Joe Biden is hoping for such measures to increase vaccination rates. To date, 222 million Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, but the level of vaccination coverage can vary greatly by region. Critics believe such commitments go too far for companies. The rules are also expected to be challenged in court.
Conservative right-wing media such as The Daily Wire are not succumbing to “tyrannical Washington nonsense” and are taking legal action. Reports noted that podcast host Ben Shapiro “is about whether Americans still live in freedom, or whether administrative tyranny will rule our lives.”
The new vaccination policy affects hundreds of thousands of companies and tens of millions of employees. Some Americans are already dealing with similar vaccination rules. For example, some companies and governments have already made a commitment to vaccination that goes beyond the new national measure. According to the newspaper, this is not seen as a complete adherence to vaccination because staff could also be tested as an alternative. Soldiers in the military are also under pressure to get the bullet.
