- A White House report says vaccine mandates helped raise vaccination rates.
- The report argues that the requirements were increased employee vaccination rates by 20+ percentage points.
- The mandate for private employers has not been enacted yet, but some businesses moved pre-emptively.
The White House said that vaccine mandates have "increase vaccination rates by 20+ percentage points" in workplace settings in a report published on Thursday.
President Joe Biden's message is "clear: vaccination requirements work," said White House press secretary Jen Psaki in a press briefing on Wednesday.
Biden announced a vaccine mandate for all private employers with more than 100 staff. The detail has yet to be finalized, but many businesses have moved to align with the rules ahead of time.
More than 25% of businesses and 40% of hospitals had put in place vaccine requirements, with "thousands more" moving ahead with mandates in coming weeks, White House officials said.
Requirements are also in place in colleges and universities serving 37% of all graduates and undergraduate students, said the report.
"As data demonstrate, when organizations implement vaccination requirements, vaccination rates have soared to 90% or greater among the workforce," it concluded.
There were 95 million Americans unvaccinated in late July when the first vaccine requirements for federal government workers were announced.
That number has now reached about 67 million today, "thanks in part" to the vaccine requirements, per the report.
In spite of employee lawsuits and protestations against the vaccine requirements, notably from Republican Governors and GOP officials, organizations have reported that most of their workforce was complying with the mandates.
United Airlines reported last month that 97% of its workforce had been vaccinated. New York state officials reported almost 90% of their hospital staff were vaccinated and that 96% of their teaching staff were now vaccinated.
The Henry Ford Health System, a Detroit-based hospital system, reported only 1% of its 33,000 workforce quit over its mandate.
Some have taken their vaccine requirements further than advised by the government. New York last month said that most health care workers fired for refusing to get vaccinated will not be able to collect unemployment benefits. Some companies are also contemplating charging unvaccinated people more for health insurance.
Louisiana's largest health system said that people whose spouses were not vaccinated would need to pay an extra $200 a month to continue covering their partner.