Washington Watch

Biden: COVID vaccine mandates terminate May 11

Visitors to America can travel like it’s 2019. Employees and contractors can work without medical coercion.

President Joe Biden announced this week that as of May 11, all federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates are terminated.

These include vaccine mandates for foreign travelers to America, for federal employees, and for federal contractors.

May 11 is when the final COVID-19 emergency ends. The emergency declared by President Donald Trump in March 2020 was terminated last month by an act of Congress and the president. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-declared emergency ends on May 11.

In its announcement, the Biden White House portrayed the vaccine mandate as a success:

Since January 2021, COVID-19 deaths have declined by 95%, and hospitalizations are down nearly 91%. Globally, COVID-19 deaths are at their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic. Following a whole-of-government effort that led to a record number of nearly 270 million Americans receiving at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, we are in a different phase of our response to COVID-19 than we were when many of these requirements were put into place.

The federal government claims a 98% compliance rate for employees, but uses an expansive definition.

“The federal government successfully implemented requirements for its workforce in a way that increased vaccination to achieve 98% compliance, reflecting employees who had received at least one dose of a vaccine or had a pending or approved exception or extension request filed by January 2022,” the announcement reads.

Compliance is defined as one dose, though most COVID vaccines require two shots. Compliance is also defined as “a pending exception or extension request.”

Foreign visitors to the U.S. have been faced with either bans on cross-border driving or vaccine mandates since March 2020. Three years and two months after the White House asked for “15 days to slow the spread,” visitors to America will be able to travel like it’s 2019.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

News Bite

Whitmer decrees April 28 ‘Worker’s Memorial Day’

Don’t expect the day off, though

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last week decreed April 28 as Worker’s Memorial Day. She’s issued Worker’s Memorial Day resolutions since taking office in 2019.

April 28, 1970, is the day when the Occupational Safety and Health Act, or OSHA, went into effect. Organized labor and its supporters has been honoring April 28 as Worker’s Memorial Day ever since. 

“The law was won because of the tireless efforts of the labor movement, which organized for safer working conditions and demanded action from the government to protect working people,” according to the AFL-CIO.

Worker’s Memorial Day commemorates the people who die at work.

Whitmer’s resolution cites U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicating 5,190 people died at the respective workplace in America in 2021, with 140 of those deaths taking place in Michigan.

The total U.S. labor force was 166.1 million in that year, according to World Bank statistics, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged Michigan’s 2021 labor force at around 4.8 million. This would mean about 0.003% of employees died at work nationwide, and the same percentage of employees in Michigan died on the job. 

Workers should not expect the day off. Worker’s Memorial Day is treated as a commemoration, not a holiday.

Whitmer’s media office did not respond to a request for comment.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.