According to a senior Biden administration official, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule requiring “employers with 100 or more employees to ensure each of their workers is fully vaccinated or tests negative for COVID at least once a week” takes effect Thursday. The video above includes reaction from legal and business experts. The rule, which President Joe Biden announced back in September, affects 84 million workers. They have until Jan. 4 to be vaccinated before weekly testing begins.
The new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine rule takes effect Thursday, as well, requiring “healthcare workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid are fully vaccinated”. This rule was announced back in September. It affects “more than 17 million workers at approximately 76,000 healthcare facilities around the country”. They also have until Jan. 4 to be fully vaccinated.
“Together, the OSHA and CMS rules, along with the other policies the administration has previously implemented, means that over two thirds of all workers in the United States are now covered by vaccination policies,” the senior administration official said in a background press call on the rules. “Higher vaccination rates protect our workers, reduce hospitalizations and deaths. This is good for workers and, importantly, this is good for the economy.”
On the same day the OSHA rule takes effect, the United Kingdom became the first country to approve of Merck’s “COVID-19 pill”. The pill, named molnupiravir, was licensed for adults 18 and older who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have at least one risk factor for developing severe disease.
“Time and again the UK has proven itself to be the world leader in developing cutting edge treatments for NHS patients,” British health secretary Sajid Javid said in a Twitter video. “I am now working with my teams across government and the NHS so that we can urgently get this treatment to the most vulnerable patients as soon as possible.”
Molnupiravir is pending review with regulators in the U.S. and the European Union. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would convene a panel of independent experts to scrutinize the pill’s safety and effectiveness later this month.
