Vivek Murthy revealed Sunday that President Joe Biden will announce this week even more steps toward mitigating the coronavirus pandemic a...
Vivek Murthy revealed Sunday that President Joe Biden will announce this week even more steps toward mitigating the coronavirus pandemic as the Surgeon General also defended not requiring vaccinations for air travel.
'There will be more actions that we continue to work on in the days ahead, and especially on the global front, where we will be taking steps,' Murthy told CNN's State of the Union guest host Dana Bash.
'And the president will be making announcements ahead of the U.N. General Assembly about additional measures that we're taking to help vaccinate the world,' the Surgeon General continued.
'So there's a lot that's been done, a lot that we're doing now, a lot more we will continue to do,' he said. 'And this is what we have to do ultimately to tackle the Delta variant.
Murthy did not specify what steps would be announced to further fight the spread.
Joe Biden will announce early this week even more steps towards stopping the spread of COVID-19. Here the president exits church in Wilmington, Delaware on Sunday
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy revealed to CNN on Sunday: 'The president will be making announcements ahead of the U.N. General Assembly about additional measures that we're taking to help vaccinate the world'
Biden's announcement will come before the United Nations General Assembly meetings, which kick off on Tuesday. Here Biden hugs a woman after talking outside St. Joseph on the Brandywine Church in Wilmington, Delaware on Sunday
Murthy defended Biden's efforts to expand vaccination in the U.S., even after backlash following his announcement the federal government would now require companies with 100 or more employees to gain proof of vaccination or else require weekly testing.
The next session of the General Assembly opens Tuesday, meaning Biden's announcement will come before that point. The first day of general debate will be the following week as the session runs through September 21.
Murthy was also defensive of Biden not announcing vaccination requirements on airplanes despite expanding these requirements to U.S. businesses and companies.
'Why not do a mandate there, just like you have done in the expanded new protocols that the president announced last week?' Bash asked.
'Well, look, certainly, that's a reasonable question to ask, but one the things we have to consider with every decision we make is the equity concerns as well,' he explained.
'And we know that, when it comes to mandating vaccines for travel, there are important issues around equity that would have to be worked out to ensure that people, for example, if they had to travel in the case of emergency to see a relative who got sick, would be able to do that, even if they weren't vaccinated,' he said.
'We need to find a safe way for that to happen.'
Republicans were enraged when Biden announced the mandates last week after vowing repeatedly since taking office that he would not require any proof of vaccine at a federal level for Americans.
Murthy was asked on Sunday if they should have imposed this sooner to get more Americans vaccinated as the rates plateaued over the summer – leading to reimplementation of mask mandates in some areas.
He explained that the Delta variant has changed the way the administration is responding to the virus, including by now requiring two-thirds of the U.S. workforce to be vaccinated.
'Well, Dana, I think that the aggressive actions of earlier this week that the president announced are not the only set of aggressive actions that we have taken in the administration,' he deflected. 'We have been working extraordinarily hard to vaccinate people.'
He said that getting one shot to 200 million people has 'saved many lives and many hospitalizations.'
'Now, with Delta, which was a new twist – a twist, if you will, a new curveball, it has required us to take another set of actions,' he said. 'And that's what you heard the president announced.'
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