Biden losing patience as GOP continues to politicise the pandemic

Biden sees a strict new vaccine mandate as essential to get Americans working again, but Republicans see an opportunity to fight ‘big government’

US president Joe Biden: exasperated by Republicans fighting his vaccination requirements. Picture: Getty

“Have at it.” Joe Biden’s exasperated retort to Republican governors who have declared war on his stringent new vaccination requirements suggests that the US president, who prides himself on his folksy geniality and half a century’s worth of bipartisan comity, is fast running out of patience.

His latest attempt to staunch the surge in new Covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths would require two thirds of American workers to be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly ...