“As for the legal side of this, let me be crystal clear to avoid what appears to be possible misinformation or disinformation around the emergency temporary standard being a ‘vaccine mandate.’ That would be on its face incorrect,” Jean-Pierre said at the daily White House press briefing.

“As has been explicit for months, it is a standard for safe workplaces to either comply with weekly testing or to be vaccinated. And second, as outlined the Department of Labor has a responsibility to keep workers safe and the legal authority to do so.”

The private-sector mandate is scheduled to take effect the same day as two other Biden vaccine mandates impacting federal contractors and about 17 million health care workers, with certain medical and religious exemptions.