Despite Emergency Stay The Biden Administration said Employers Should Move Forward with the Vaccine Mandate

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC, the Biden administration  on November 5 released an interim final rule regarding SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for private employers with 100 or more workers in an effort to increase vaccination rates among the US population. The next day, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans granted an emergency stay of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) temporary emergency rule that employees of those companies be fully vaccinated by January 4 or be required to undergo weekly testing, although it is unclear whether the stay is applicable nationwide or only in those states under the court’s jurisdiction.* According to the 3-judge panel, the petitioners bringing the request—including 5 states, all led by Republican governors, and various companies—”give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate.”

The court gave the federal government a deadline of 5 pm on November 8 to respond. Late that day, the US Department of Justice requested the court lift its stay, stating that the petitioners’ claims of harm are “premature,” given the rule’s first deadline—for large businesses to require masking of unvaccinated employees in the workplace—does not go into effect until December. The Biden administration said employers should move forward with efforts to get their employees vaccinated, saying the rule “will save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations.” OSHA rules apply to private workplaces in 29 states, while the remaining states have their own state-run OSHA agencies that are required to adopt any federal rules.

In October, OSHA threatened to take over the operations of the state-run OSHA agencies in Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah for failing to adopt a similar SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rule for healthcare workers; Arizona and South Carolina have begun the process to adopt that standard. Several other lawsuits challenging the vaccine rule have been filed in federal courts, including by at least 21 other Republican-led states. The Fifth Circuit must now decide whether to lift the stay or make it permanent. If the latter, OSHA could appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday. The Covid-19 pandemic could be over in the U.S. by the time President Joe Biden’s workplace vaccine mandates take effect on January 4th.

So far, courts have largely upheld vaccination mandates issued by local and state governments and private companies, but the federal rule is more far-reaching.