: Biden to meet with execs from Disney, Microsoft, Walgreens on vaccine mandates

• Walt Disney
  DIS,
  +0.09%
  CEO Bob Chapek

• Microsoft
  MSFT,
  +1.17%
  President Brad Smith

• Walgreens Boots Alliance
  WBA,
  +1.68%
  CEO Roz Brewer

• Tim Boyle, president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear
  COLM,
  -0.65%

• Josh Bolten, president and CEO of Business Roundtable, a lobbying group for large companies

• Greg Adams, chair and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, the health insurer

• Madeline Bell, president and CEO of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

• Molly Moon Neitzel, founder and CEO of Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, a small business based in the Seattle area

• William Tate IV, president of Louisiana State University

Biden will discuss the executives’ leadership on putting into place strong COVID requirements, and the meeting will serve as a rallying cry for more businesses to institute similar measures, according to the White House official.

The official said vaccine requirements are good for the economy and they work, as they get more people vaccinated and accelerate the path out of the pandemic.

Last week, Biden mandated COVID vaccines for executive-branch employees as well as federal contractors, and he discussed an emergency rule that his administration is developing under which all employers with 100 or more workers would require vaccinations or weekly tests.

Related: Here is a list of U.S. companies that are mandating at least some of their workforce get vaccinated against COVID-19

The president on Thursday is also scheduled to give a speech at 5 p.m. Eastern on “a national security initiative,” the White House said.

U.S. stocks
SPX,
+0.21%

DJIA,
+0.29%
were trading little changed, as investors remain uneasy about the fallout from the COVID pandemic, which is threatening to slow global economic growth, as the delta variant has led to spikes in case counts.