Majority of U.S. federal employees oppose Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate: daily

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- More than half of federal employees recently surveyed disagreed with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate announced by U.S. President Joe Biden in September, according to U.S. media outlet Government Executive.

A total of 53 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat disagreed with the vaccine mandate, while 44 percent strongly or somewhat agreed with it in a survey conducted by the Government Business Council (GBC), the research arm of Government Executive.

The GBC sent the survey to the readers of Government Executive and Defense One, a property of Atlantic Media, between Oct. 27 and Nov. 2, and received 3,186 replies.

The president's mandate requires all federal employees to get vaccinated before Nov. 22. People who refuse to be vaccinated and whose agencies deny their exemption requests will "face progressive discipline, up to removal from the federal service," reported the Washington, D.C.-based government's business news daily.

Biden on Sept. 9 announced that the Department of Labor is developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested once a week.