Terry McAuliffe Praises President Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for All Federal Employees

From the McAuliffe for Governor campaign:

MCLEAN, VA – Terry McAuliffe today released the following statement on news that President Biden will sign an executive order requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated:

“This action by President Biden today is great news for us in Virginia. As the state with the second largest federal workforce in the nation, this decision is critical in our fight to end this pandemic and keep our economy growing,” said Terry McAuliffe. “We have more than 140,000 federal employees in Virginia, and ensuring that every single one of them who is eligible is fully vaccinated puts us one step closer towards defeating this virus. This is why I have called for school divisions, hospital systems, and businesses to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine to their employees. My opponent Glenn Youngkin continues to peddle anti-vaccine rhetoric, and opposes vaccine requirements for schools, businesses and hospital workers. Simply put: when it comes to this pandemic, we are facing a leadership test – and Glenn has already failed.”

Following the Food and Drug Administration’s announcement granting full approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, Terry McAuliffe called on all Virginia employers to require the COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible employees and has called on all colleges and universities across Virginia to require students, faculty, and staff to be fully vaccinated. Terry has also called on all health systems in the Commonwealth to institute the same requirement for health care employees, and urged all Virginia school divisions to require staff and personnel to be fully vaccinated in order to keep schools open and protect Virginia’s over one million K-12 students – many of whom are still ineligible for vaccination. Last month, Terry for Virginia announced it would require campaign staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Recent national polling shows that Americans overwhelmingly support vaccine mandates.

Glenn Youngkin vehemently opposes COVID-19 safety measures that the majority of Virginians support. Youngkin opposes vaccine requirements for health care workers and teachers and has rejected CDC recommendations to keep children safe in schools. Much like Donald Trump, Youngkin has pandered to his far-right base by encouraging Virginians to fill out “exception” forms for non-medical, non-religious exceptions to vaccine mandates. Glenn Youngkin’s refusal to take COVID-19 seriously is dangerous for our Commonwealth and our economy.