The fastest and easiest way out of the COVID-19 pandemic -- and back to a fully-functioning economy -- is to get as many people as possible vaccinated. That was Joe Biden's message today, in a speech he gave promoting support for vaccine mandates. It was his strongest statement on the subject to date, and he tied it at every step to getting both daily life and the economy fully back to normal.

Biden's timing is pretty good, because many vaccine mandates which had been announced a month or so ago (back at the height of the Delta spike) are finally taking effect. People are getting fired because of their continuing refusal to get vaccinated. But, as Biden pointed out, while most of the news stories center around the few hundred who get fired, they mostly ignore the tens (or even hundreds) of thousands of people who not only keep their jobs, but can now do so more safely. Which was Biden's core message: vaccine mandates work. They save lives, in the end.

He didn't come right out and say it (although I wish he had, since it'd be a word nobody would be surprised to hear Joe Biden utter), but it's true nonetheless -- the time for mollycoddling the unvaccinated is now over. Now it's time to pay attention to the rest of us -- the ones who have been forced back into preventative measures because of the stubborn refusal of the few. We have rights too, and the right to a safe workplace is one of them.

Biden's speech was a prelude to the Labor Department announcing new rules and regulations to implement the policy Biden unveiled a while back: all private businesses in the country with 100 or more employees must mandate either vaccination or weekly testing for all their employees. Period.

He didn't even bother to point out that this wasn't a true vaccine mandate. There will still be an opt-out (in the actual federal rules) for those who still don't want to get vaccinated -- they'll just be required to be tested each week. That's pretty reasonable, actually. But Biden leaned in to actual vaccine mandates -- like the one he imposed on all federal workers, all healthcare workers, all currently-serving military members, and all teachers paid by the federal government. These mandates have no testing dodge at all. And Biden encouraged as many private companies to also implement strict vaccine requirements.

Due to the passage of time, Biden now has facts and figures to back up this encouragement. Companies are reporting compliance rates above 90 percent -- some above 95 percent. That is how we're going to get to true herd immunity and put this viral pandemic behind us for good.

Biden also noted that the percentage of adults who haven't even gotten their first shot is dropping -- it's now below 22 percent of the eligible public. The media made a huge deal when Biden missed his goal (by only a few percentage points) of 70 percent by Independence Day, but they've been ignoring this metric ever since. That figure is, as of today, 78.1 percent. Here's another way to put it, from Biden's speech: since July, the number of eligible unvaccinated Americans has dropped from 95 million to 67 million. That is solid progress.

Biden touted his progress on just about every front since the last speech he gave on the subject (when he initially announced the federal vaccine mandate, and that the private employer mandate would soon follow). Things have gotten better, and now (thankfully) Delta is receding. We're down to less than two-thirds the height of the Delta spike in new cases, and the number is dropping fast.

But we've been here before. Delta could fade and then some other mutation could run rampant. The only way to head this off at the pass is to get so many people vaccinated before it does happen that the new strain wouldn't be able to get any sort of foothold in this country.

Three things are going to help. The first is that the other two companies with COVID-19 vaccines will soon get approval for their booster shots. This should drastically lessen the possibility of "breakthrough cases" in people who have been vaccinated.

The second is the anticipated approval (expected next week) of a vaccine regimen for children ages 5 through 11. When this happens, all K-12 schoolchildren will be eligible to get their shots. This adds a newly-eligible population of tens of millions of kids, which will boost the overall public vaccination rate.

The third follows from the second. More and more school districts are going to start flat-out requiring COVID-19 vaccination for all students. This will push parents to get the shots into their kids' arms. If it's a choice between getting them vaccinated or having to homeschool them, that's going to motivate most parents to schedule time to get the kids their shots.

As Biden pointed out today, the political and social stance that vaccinations are somehow bad or even suspicious is centered solely on COVID-19. All kids already have to get vaccinated for polio, mumps, measles, rubella, and other deadly and crippling diseases before the child can be enrolled. So why should COVID be any different?

Biden reminded everyone of the hope we all felt at the beginning of the summer -- when the economy was roaring back, the mask mandates disappeared, and more and more people breathed a sigh of relief that the end was in sight. We can get back there, Biden said today, but the only way we'll stay on that course this time (instead of being taken aback by a new spike) is to get as many people as possible vaccinated -- and vaccine mandates are the best tool to make that happen.

Biden still didn't take one big step that some Democrats have been stridently urging -- banning unvaccinated people from air travel. That would be a vaccine mandate that might have the most far-reaching effect, especially right before the holiday travel season. But to do that -- and to allow time enough to either change travel plans or get fully vaccinated -- Biden would pretty much have had to announce it right now (since Thanksgiving is really just around the corner). He didn't do so, which means any vaccine mandate for travellers will likely not happen until at least early next year.

But even without taking that step, the new rules for private businesses will likely be a game-changer. Sure, there will be some companies (and states, even) willing to take the matter to court, and there will be stubborn holdouts who insist on getting tested each week -- but the majority of people are going to soon discover that it's a whole lot easier to just get the shots and never have to worry about getting tested again.

Biden's speech could be boiled down to two bumpersticker-sized slogans: "Vaccine mandates work," and: "Let's finish the job." The majority of the public agrees. Most of us just want this whole thing to be over as soon as possible, and are tired of mollycoddling those who seem to bizarrely want to keep the pandemic going on for as long as possible. Hopefully the threat of losing a paycheck will convince enough of the unvaccinated that it's time to get the shots for the rest of us to finally feel safe once again. As we finally emerge from the fourth wave of the pandemic, this is the best way to assure that there just is no fifth wave.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant