Biden pushes vaccine mandates to boost US economy

President Joe Biden speaks about Covid-19 vaccinations after touring a construction site in Illinois on Thursday (Susan Walsh/AP)

US president Joe Biden on Thursday championed Covid-19 vaccination requirements, determined that the roughly 67 million unvaccinated American adults must receive the shot even as he acknowledged that mandates were not his “first instinct”.

Mr Biden had ruled out such requirements before taking office in January, but they now are a tactic he feels forced into using by a stubborn slice of the public that has refused to be inoculated and has thus jeopardised the lives of others and the nation’s economic recovery.