
Biden vaccine mandate: What you need to know about the January 4 deadline
CBSN
The Biden administration on Thursday unveiled its new COVID-19 standards for businesses, the U.S. government's biggest push yet to encourage widespread vaccination. The new requirements are raising questions about the process for implementing, costs and timing of the rules for workers and their bosses.
Under the plan, employers with more than 100 employees must choose whether they will require workers to be fully vaccinated or undergo weekly testing within 30 days of the plan's publication in the Federal Register. By January 4, those businesses must implement the mandate. The so-called "emergency temporary standard" was requested by President Biden as part of his September COVID-19 action plan, and will be overseen by the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

In the past year, over 135 million passengers traveled to the U.S. from other countries. To infectious disease experts, that represents 135 million chances for an outbreak to begin. To identify and stop the next potential pandemic, government disease detectives have been discreetly searching for viral pathogens in wastewater from airplanes. Experts are worried that these efforts may not be enough.