NC reacts to COVID vaccine order, from ‘the right thing’ to calling Biden a ‘dictator’
North Carolina’s political, medical and business leaders had divergent responses to President Joe Biden’s new COVID-19 mandate Thursday that will affect millions of workers across the country.
The state’s Republican congressmen criticized the executive order, which will require companies with more than 100 workers to have their employees vaccinated or face weekly COVID-19 testing. “Tyrant” or “dictator” were some of their initial reactions.
Some business leaders said they are waiting to get more information before offering their opinions. But health care leaders praised the decision, saying unvaccinated people are putting significant stress on the state’s hospitals.
“Our health care system fabric is being torn apart,” said Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease specialist at UNC-Chapel Hill.
He said a federal vaccine mandate “makes sense.”
“We just have a tremendous burden of unvaccinated, very sick people filling up our hospital beds, dominating our intensive care units,” Wohl told The News & Observer.
Biden’s plan is part of a push to get a larger percentage of the country vaccinated as the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge and new spikes in cases and deaths are reported daily.
That’s the situation in North Carolina, where intensive care patients with COVID-19 hit a pandemic high of 955 late in August, and they’ve been over 900 since. More than 15,000 North Carolinians have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, with over 1,000 deaths reported in August.
Biden said Thursday his plan would apply to some 100 million Americans, or around two-thirds of the country’s workforce.
As part of the plan, he said he will ask the U.S. Department of Labor to draft a new vaccine requirement that could affect around 80 million workers employed by private businesses. If the order is not followed, companies could be fined thousands of dollars, with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) tasked with enforcing the ruling.
Biden also said he would issue an executive order that would mandate all federal employees be vaccinated as well as contractors that do business with the federal government.
The vaccine mandate would also extend to workers at health care facilities that get funds from Medicare and Medicaid.
North Carolina Republicans said the mandate is an overreach.
“Rather than being subject to Washington mandates, private employers should be allowed to determine what policies work best for their individual businesses and employees,” Rep. Patrick McHenry tweeted.
Will NC DOL enforce the new rules?
North Carolina is one of 22 states with its own OSHA plan, run by the N.C. Department of Labor. That means any enforcement of private businesses with more than 100 employees would be up to the N.C. Labor Commissioner Josh Dobson, who is a Republican in his first term.
Jennifer Haigwood, a department spokeswoman, said as of Thursday evening, no formal orders had been issued with details of the plan for private businesses. Executive orders for federal employees and federal contractors were released later Thursday.
“We have heard all of what you’re saying, but as far as I know there’s nothing in writing,” she said.
While many of the Triangle’s largest employers already require vaccines for employees before they return to the office, mandates have not been universally adopted by companies, The News & Observer previously reported.
But influential companies like SAS Institute, Cisco Systems, Red Hat and IBM have all asked employees to either vaccinate or stay home. And the largest hospital networks in the region — UNC Health, Duke Health and WakeMed — have told their employees to get vaccinated within the coming weeks as a condition of employment.
Wohl said there’s been a good faith effort to get as many people as vaccinated as possible.
As of Thursday, 51% of all North Carolinians are fully vaccinated. The percentage goes up to 59% when looking at those eligible, ages 12 and up, who are fully vaccinated. National rates are 53% and 63% respectively, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But with still relatively low vaccination rates, the Biden administration’s vaccine requirements could help, Wohl said.
“If the tools are at our disposal, it would be irresponsible not to use the power of the federal government to do what they can to get more people vaccinated,” Wohl said. “Because there’s a pandemic going on, and there’s still a lot of people vulnerable.”
Opposition from Republican politicians
Republican politicians opposed the hospitals’ decision earlier this summer to mandate vaccines for their workers, The News & Observer reported. Nearly every GOP member of the N.C. House of Representatives signed a letter to those hospitals in August, saying some of their constituents wanted the hospitals to reconsider.
“These men and women were rightly hailed as healthcare heroes while serving on the frontlines against COVID-19,” the letter said. “It is simply unfair to force them to choose between their job and taking a vaccine that is only authorized for ‘emergency use only.’”
Since then, however, the Pfizer vaccine has been fully authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The vaccines made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are still under emergency approval, but are expected to get full approval soon.
Shortly after Biden’s announcement, U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from far western North Carolina known for inflammatory outbursts, tweeted, “Joe Biden: you are NOT our dictator. Stop acting like one.”
Other Republicans who represent North Carolina in Congress also criticized the order Thursday.
“And I was told Trump was the tyrant,” tweeted Rep. Dan Bishop.
Rep. Richard Hudson tweeted that he believes vaccines “are a good way to protect yourself” but that he believes vaccine mandates “are not effective.”
None of North Carolina’s five Democratic representatives in Congress had commented on the order as of Thursday night.
Cooper watching implementation of Biden mandate
Gov. Roy Cooper, at a press conference on Thursday, said he was glad to see Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal employees. Cooper had already mandated employees for all cabinet-level agencies get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.
He said there are no plans to adjust the state’s mandate or testing option for employees.
“We want to see how this works,” Cooper said of Biden’s decision. “We believe that (our mandate) is getting more state employees to step up and get vaccinated. So we’ll look at what the feds do over the next couple of months because it’s going to take them a while to ramp up and we’ll see how effective our verification requirement is for state employees.
“The idea is to get more shots in arms,” the governor added. “But right now, since our state verification requirement has just taken effect, we want to see how this works and continue to encourage people to get vaccinated.”
Will a vaccine mandate worsen labor shortage?
Lynn Minges, president of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, said her association learned about the new order Thursday afternoon and quickly began sharing it with its members, which include restaurants and hotels.
Minges said restaurant and hotels are eager to learn more specifics of the mandate, as it could have a large effect on the two industries that have struggled for months with a growing labor shortage.
“We are still unsure, if (the order) will be for restaurants with a total of 100 employees or 100 per location,” she said.
Many restaurants, she noted, have multiple locations or are a part of a franchise, potentially making applications of the rules more complex.
Minges said it’s too soon to know how restaurant owners and hotel operators will respond to the requirement.
“I have talked to a number of members to inquire if they are considering vaccine mandates, and there was some reluctance because of the worker shortage,” she said, with many owners cautious about adding another hurdle for potential hires to jump over.
“It could cause some employees who have concerns about vaccines to choose smaller employers,” she added.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 6:50 PM.
