work. we have seen companies like tyson food in the first few weeks of their implementation of their requirement, their vaccination rate has gone up by 24%. same thing at the department of veteran affairs for health care workers. vaccination requirements will have a big impact. the president today with these strong actions, it impacts 100 million people. that s two-thirds of all american workers. we are optimistic that vaccination requirements will increase rates significantly. look, i m going to jump to the conclusion correct me if i m wrong if you thought you could make it so that everybody is the way the federal government is, which is get the vaccine or get out, you would have done it. you put in a weekly testing option for companies. do you think that that is going to be enough to withstand court challenges that you expect ? is that why you put that get vaccinated or have a weekly testing option in there? the department of labor has a
you are not mandating the vaccine for everyone. there s this weekly testing option out there. there s also not everyone. the postal service is not included. when it comes to teachers, you are asking governors to do it. i was personally shocked the other day, in new york city, with these incredibly high vaccination rates, teachers who are about to teach kids who aren t vaccinated are only 72% vaccinated. it was shocking. obviously, i don t know, is it the unions you feel like you are not able to mandate for the postal service or teachers? we are doing it everywhere we can. the postal service is an independent agency. teachers, the president is doing it where he can within the federal government. all teachers that teach as part of the department of defense school system and department of interior. the president is insisting on a vaccine of all teachers across the country. about 90% of teachers and staff at schools are vaccinated. that should be 100%.
a mandate could save lives. president biden now took it further on federal employees. he had a testing option there. he removed that. they have to get vaccinated. that s it. full stop. do you think he went far enough? when you look at the penalties here and really their ability to fire people will get challenged in court. where do you think he is right now? first of all, i love the tone. 75% of americans have gotten at least one shot. 75% of adults. the pandemic is being perpetuated by the 25% of americans who are refusing to do the right thing now. the president said, we have been patient but our patience is wearing thin. i wish he had gone further. i wanted the president to restrict travel this holiday season to people who have been vaccinated, air, bus and train travel. i think that if we re going to
president, they are that testing option in there. this is a big change from where the administration was just recently. reporter: it s a significant change. it follows the arc of what this administration has done over the last several months. a big change from just a couple months ago this summer when the president simply did not feel it was his obligation or his responsibility to impose mandates on private businesses or even federal government workers. this has been something that s been a bit of a crescendo since he made the decision to require workers to either get vaccinated or test weekly. that was amplified today, requiring federal workers, people under his purview. the biggest news, as you said, was to private businesses. anyone with 100 or more employees across the country, under an osha rule. that is designed to protect workers, keep them safe. that is what this is under. yes, there are almost certain to be lawsuits. republican governors across the
as texas governor greg abbott he s vaccinated. how did that happen? what s going on here exactly? what s this about? we would love to know. we are long past the time and the people in power feel they have to answer simple questions. the emphasis is on us and our total obedience. here s a disgraced governor of new york, may be the second to last person you would call for medical advice. telling more than 600,000 doctors and nurses in the state that regardless of what they think about medicines, he s decided they must get the shot. i think we need dramatic action to gain control of the situation. so in new york and our state hospitals, all patients facing health care workers must get vaccinated. there will be no testing option for patients facing health care workers. that is a point of contact that could be a serious spreading