Biden’s COVID-19 Vaccine-or-Test Rule

In a Sept. 9 speech, President Joe Biden announced a multipart plan to get more U.S. residents vaccinated against COVID-19 and slow the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus that is responsible for the current surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

The part of the plan that received the most reaction -- particularly from Republican governors who have threatened to block its implementation -- is the president's directive to the Labor Department to develop a temporary emergency rule for businesses with 100 or more employees that would require workers to be fully vaccinated or be tested at least once a week.

If you work for such a company, and also happen to be unvaccinated, you may have some questions about the plan, which is still being developed. Luckily, FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely and Managing Editor Lori Robertson have written a piece that covers seven key questions that may come to mind.

Reader: Why don’t you listen to what Dr. Cole is sharing versus trying to combat truthful results? I listened to the video and it is very well done and proven over and over what he shared. He admitted the unknowns openly, he simply shared what he is seeing! Do you think he is making up his research? It is high time people wake up to reality!

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: We did listen to what Dr. Cole was saying, and we found some of it is wrong and other information to be lacking in context.

Most seriously, Cole said "mRNA trials in mammals have led to odd cancers. mRNA trials on mammals have led to autoimmune diseases — not right away, six, nine, 12 months later." That’s a pretty explosive allegation. This is not something he is seeing; this is something that he claims happened in clinical trials. When we asked Cole to provide support for those claims, he referred us to a 2018 paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Drug Discovery that reviewed trials and studies of various, earlier mRNA vaccines. But that paper doesn’t support his statement.

Norbert Pardi, a research assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was the lead author of the paper. He told us in an email, "No publications demonstrate that mRNA vaccines cause cancer or autoimmune diseases."

People need that information to make informed decisions about whether or not to get vaccinated.

As for lacking context, he said ivermectin is a "treatment" for COVID-19. That may turn out to be the case; it is still being studied. But, right now, remdesivir is the only drug approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19; the approval is for patients requiring hospitalization.

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Ongoing Clinical Trials Will Decide Whether (or Not) Ivermectin Is Safe, Effective for COVID-19": Studies on whether ivermectin is beneficial in treating COVID-19 patients haven’t been conclusive, and health officials have warned people not to self-medicate. But multiple large trials are continuing to assess the antiparasitic drug. Yet, Sen. Rand Paul reportedly said researchers were "unwilling to objectively study" it because of "hatred" for Donald Trump. He later acknowledged studies are being done. Here we review the research.
   
• "Experts: No Link Between COVID-19 Vaccines and Erectile Dysfunction": Public health officials around the world have explained that erectile dysfunction is not a side effect of COVID-19 vaccines, but a viral tweet from rapper Nicki Minaj has spread the unfounded claim that it is. There is no evidence to support that claim.
   
• "No One Pushed 'Button' to Prevent Biden from Speaking": There was nothing unusual about the end of a routine press "pool spray" before a private meeting between fire officials and President Joe Biden in Idaho. But conservatives have falsely claimed the video shows someone cut off Biden's microphone, for fear he was veering off-script.