At the same time, the Biden administration has heralded strong jobs numbers and what it says is an economy rebounding from its Covid battering.Įngelhardt said “the mere specter of the Mandate” had stoked “workplace strife” and “contributed to untold economic upheaval in recent months”. Resistance to vaccine mandates has produced protests and fears of staff shortages.
More than 434m doses of vaccines have been administered and more than 194 million Americans, or 58.5% of the population, are fully vaccinated. Nonetheless, vaccine mandates, rules and requirements and other public health measures are the focus of concentrated opposition among Republican voters and politicians, including many jockeying for the presidential nomination in 2024. More than 762,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the US, from a caseload of nearly 47m. In his ruling, Judge Kurt D Engelhardt wrote that the stay was “firmly in the public interest” and referred to the Osha requirement as a “Mandate”, with a capital “m”. On Friday, a three-judge panel rejected that argument. Justice and labor department lawyers filed a response on Monday in which they said stopping the requirement would prolong the Covid-19 pandemic and “cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day”. Nonetheless, the fifth US circuit court of appeals, based in New Orleans and one of the most conservative federal panels, granted an emergency stay last Saturday. The measure is softer than those implemented by many private businesses and state or local governments, and the Biden administration has expressed confidence in its legality.
Under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) requirement, such workers must be vaccinated by 4 January or use masks and weekly tests. One law professor said the move showed the court was “radical and anti-science”.
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