On July 4th, Joe Biden celebrated his regained freedom.

In the garden of the White House, the American President hosted an exuberant party and said that America was celebrating a special Independence Day this year: It was a year of the pandemic: a time of isolation, pain, fear and loss lay behind the citizens .

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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The President took stock at the time: Just think about how things looked a year ago - and what has been achieved since then. One could understand this as an allusion to the chaos under Donald Trump. The economy is running again, said Biden, and there are record numbers on the job market. A little lost in the mood of the party at the time that Biden also made it clear that the battle against the corona virus was not over yet. There is still a lot to be done. After all, the president had missed the vaccination quota he was aiming for - and the Delta variant had already arrived in America. The number of cases has increased again, albeit at a low level.

In the meantime, the Delta variant has gotten out of hand, especially in those parts of the United States - dominated by the Republicans - that are particularly populous with anti-vaccination options. The intensive care units in several states are overcrowded - and after the number of deaths had meanwhile dropped to around 200 a day, they are now back to more than 1000. After all, America, whose vaccination campaign was initially highly successful, is now more than 50 countries in terms of vaccination rates been lapped.

A frustrated President stepped in front of the cameras at the White House on Thursday.

For weeks there have been discussions in the cabinet about whether the federal government should take mandatory measures.

Many Democrats shied away from it - mainly because of the demagogic potential that would be offered to the Republicans.

But now the President pulled the rip cord: The "waiting period" was over, he said.

This is "a pandemic of the unvaccinated," he added.

And he said, "A certain minority of Americans, supported by a certain minority of elected representatives, are preventing us from getting over the mountain."

Biden: Tremendous damage

The fight against the pandemic had been politicized in America from the start. Many Republicans, especially in the South, the Midwest and the West, oppose vaccination - be it because they distrust the government or the state, be it because they believe God will protect them, or after all, because they cling to the conspiracy theories spread on social media. "What makes it incredibly frustrating is that we have the tools to fight Covid-19," Biden said now.

Although America has an unprecedented vaccination program that has made vaccines available free of charge in 80,000 locations for five months, there are still 80 million Americans who have not been immunized. The 25 percent of the population who refused to be vaccinated did enormous damage. Overcrowded intensive care units also meant there was no room for cardiovascular and cancer patients. In view of the large amount of misinformation, Biden once again emphasized that the vaccination offered good protection against a severe course of Covid disease. Only one in 160,000 fully vaccinated a day has to have his illness treated in hospital.

In view of these facts, Biden then presented his package of measures. Companies with more than 100 employees should be required to have all employees vaccinated or to be tested for a corona infection at least once a week. The regulation is being developed under the auspices of the Ministry of Labor and should apply to 80 million employees in the private sector. "We will protect the vaccinated workers from the unvaccinated," said Biden.

In addition, all employees in hospitals and health care facilities who accept payments from state health insurances will have to be vaccinated against Corona in the future.

The regulation will apply to around 17 million employees.

The state programs Medicare and Medicaid mainly cover the elderly, the disabled and the needy.

Biden also announced that it would issue an ordinance according to which all federal employees should be vaccinated.

This also applies to companies that have received orders from the federal government.

"He has lied"

Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, said there would be only a few exceptions for specific health or religious reasons. The previous possibility of exempting oneself from compulsory vaccination through regular corona tests is to be discontinued. Federal employees have up to 75 days to get vaccinated. Employees who had not been vaccinated by then were threatened with disciplinary measures via the responsible HR department, which could lead to dismissal.

After all, Biden wants to call on all states to make the corona vaccination compulsory for teachers and all other school employees. But it remains with an appeal to the governors. The Republicans reacted immediately to the presidential statements: The general secretary of the party organization RNC, Ronna McDaniel, announced a lawsuit against the compulsory vaccination, which affects the private sector. After the election, Biden promised not to impose any compulsory vaccination. "He lied," she said. So far, the President has endeavored to withdraw the fight against the pandemic from the Kulturkampf. Now he goes to the battlefield.