Biden’s Six-Prong COVID-19 Plan Includes Vaccine and Mask Mandates

Catholics call seven behaviors that inspire further sin “the seven deadly sins.” U.S. President Joe Biden, a Catholic, wants Americans to follow seven saving steps he announced to combat continued Covid outbreaks.

Biden lists the seven steps on the White House web site:

• Ensure all Americans have access to regular, reliable and free testing
• Fix personal protective equipment (PPE) problems for good
• Provide clear, consistent, evidence-based guidance for how communities should navigate the pandemic – and the resources for schools, small businesses and families to make it through
• Plan for the effective, equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines
• Protect older Americans and others at high risk
• Rebuild and expand defenses to predict, prevent and mitigate pandemic threats
• Implement mask mandates nationwide

President Biden’s plan is an executive summary that is light on details about his covid containment plan he has been talking about for months but talk may become action pretty soon. Biden is expected to announce a mask mandate for all federal employees during a press conference he has scheduled this afternoon, at 5 p.m.

The Departments of Defense and Veterans affairs, the National Institutes of Health and the Indian Health Service already have, or have announced, mask mandates for their employees and visitors but they only cover about 2.5 million people. Biden is expected to announce a mask mandate for much more of the population, today.

A federal mask mandate is likely to meet resistance just as state mandates have. For example, an executive order by Oregon Governor Kate Brown is facing a court challenge from police and firefighters objecting to the vaccine mandate.

Employees of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit have have sued the hospital, claiming the requirement to get COVID-19 vaccination violates their constitutional right to bodily integrity. They ask, in their suit, for a restraining order to stop mandated vaccinations while the case is being litigated.

Lawsuits have been filed against Indiana University, California State University, George Mason University, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the University of Connecticut challenging vaccine mandates.