Biden, a convert to vaccine mandates, champions compliance

By ZEKE MILLER and AAMER MADHANI
Associated Press

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Il. (AP) — President Joe Biden is championing COVID-19 vaccination requirements and is determined that the roughly 67 million unvaccinated American adults must get the shot even as he acknowledges that mandates weren’t his “first instinct.” He had ruled out such mandates before taking office in January, but they’re now a tactic he feels forced into using. That’s because there’s a stubborn slice of the public that’s refused to be inoculated. Forcing people to do something they don’t want to do is rarely a winning political strategy. Yet with the majority of the country already vaccinated and with industry on his side, Biden has emerged as an unlikely advocate of browbeating tactics to drive vaccinations.