Analysis-Biden’s vaccine mandate signals a White House done with

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and his aides have concluded something in recent weeks: The Mr. Nice Guy approach isn’t working.

By introducing vast new vaccine mandates he once opposed, Biden is fighting back against what the White House sees as the sabotage of their agenda by a petulant, politically motivated minority.

After months wasted trying to persuade elected officials with bipartisan meetings and citizens reluctant to get vaccinated through gentle outreach, Biden felt he had little choice but to call for more aggressive steps, according to interviews with nine senior aides and close allies.

The president’s exasperation has been clear.

“What makes it incredibly more frustrating is that we have the tools to combat COVID-19, and a distinct minority of Americans – supported by a distinct minority of elected officials – are keeping us from turning the corner,” he said on Thursday, referring to an estimated 80 million unvaccinated.

“We cannot allow these actions to stand in the way of protecting the large majority of Americans who have done their part and want to get back to life as normal.”

Biden’s vaccine mandates for all federal employees and larger companies come as the number of infections in the United States rises, the use of face masks return, newly opened schools shut, hospital beds fill up, and some Republican-led states defy recommendations from health officials.

Some 100,000 Americans are predicted (https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america?view=cumulative-deaths) to die from COVID between now and Dec. 1, more than the same period last year, bringing the U.S. death toll to 750,000. The prospect of the return to normalcy that Biden promised just two months ago, during a July 4 “Independence from COVID” celebration, has given way https://www.reuters.com/business/us-economys-hot-vax-summer-ends-cool-covid-fall-delta-rises-2021-09-03 in many quarters to uncertainty and fear.

Biden’s vaccine mandate marks a turning point, said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University presidential historian.

“What you’re seeing is him confronting the reality of … vaccine resistance,” he said. “It’s a little bit like his early views of Republicans on Capitol Hill, that you can persuade them through the right words and right demeanor. I think the administration has woken up to the reality that this isn’t true.”

As growth in vaccine rates began to slow, the White House launched a summer campaign that included offers of cash, door-to-door outreach, and setting up clinics at workplaces, festivals, and places of worship. They recruited social media influencers – from soccer moms to fashion bloggers to Disney star Olivia Rodrigo – to help…