US to lift most federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates next week

By ZEKE MILLER
AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will end the last remaining federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements next week when the national public health emergency for the coronavirus ends. Vaccine requirements for federal workers and federal contractors, as well as foreign air travelers to the U.S., will end May 11. The government is also beginning the process of lifting shot requirements for Head Start educators, healthcare workers, and noncitizens at U.S. land borders. The requirements are the last vestiges of some of the more coercive measures taken by the federal government to promote vaccination as the deadly virus raged. Their end marks the latest display of how President Joe Biden’s administration is moving to treat COVID-19 as a routine, endemic illness.