OSHA Suspends Enforcement of COVID 'Vaccine or Test' Mandate | MedPage Today - Joyce Frieden:
November 17, 2021 - "The Biden administration has temporarily suspended enforcement of a regulation requiring businesses with 100 or more employees to either mandate COVID-19 vaccination for all their workers or ensure that unvaccinated workers wear masks and are tested for COVID at least once a week. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) noted on its website Monday that on November 12, a U.S. appeals court 'granted a motion to stay OSHA's COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), published on November 5. The court ordered that OSHA "take no steps to implement or enforce" the ETS "until further court order."
"'While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation,' the website said. OSHA had been hit with multiple lawsuits from states and private businesses objecting to the rule.
"The suspension does not affect a separate rule issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which mandates that all healthcare workers whose organizations receive funding from Medicare or Medicaid be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, 2022.... Healthcare workers will not have the option to submit to weekly testing in lieu of a vaccine. The two rules combined, in addition to previous regulations, [would] extend vaccination requirements to roughly two-thirds of all employees nationwide, including 17 million healthcare workers and 84 million employees, officials said....
"Even before the ETS was issued, 24 state attorneys general had threatened to file lawsuits if the Biden administration moved forward with vaccine-or-test rules for private businesses. And soon after the rules were announced, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Dhillon Law Group introduced a challenge to the Biden administration's rules on behalf of the Daily Wire, a conservative news site."
Read more: https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/95740
Federal judge blocks vaccine rule for health workers in New Hampshire, 9 other states | WMUR News 9 - Associated Press:
November 29, 2021 - "A federal judge on Monday blocked President Joe Biden's administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on thousands of health care workers in 10 states, including New Hampshire, that brought the first legal challenge against the requirement. The court order said that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid had no clear authority from Congress to enact the vaccine mandate for providers participating in the two government health care programs for the elderly, disabled and poor.
"The preliminary injunction by St. Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp applies to a coalition of suing states that includes Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Similar lawsuits also are pending in other states. The federal rule requires COVID-19 vaccinations for more than 17 million workers nationwide in about 76,000 health care facilities and home health care providers that get funding from the government health programs. Workers are to receive their first dose by Dec. 6 and their second shot by Jan. 4....
"'This is a big win for New Hampshire’s health care system,' said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. 'Nursing homes were at risk of closure if the Biden mandate remained in place. This helps maintain the staff New Hampshire needs to care for our loved ones'....
"A federal appeals court on Nov. 12 issued an order halting the Biden administration’s rule requiring private businesses with 100 or more workers to ensure that their workers are vaccinated by Jan. 4.... Earlier Monday, Sununu released a letter he had sent last week to a top official of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration seeking clarification of the Biden administration’s message to employers to move ahead with the 100-employee vaccination mandate despite the court order. Sununu wrote to Assistant Secretary of Labor Douglas Parker [and] asked for the deadline for compliance to be extended by 'at least two months after any stay is potentially lifted.'
"Biden's administration contends federal rules supersede state policies prohibiting vaccine mandates and are essential to slowing the pandemic. But the judge in the health care provider case wrote that federal officials likely overstepped their legal powers. 'CMS seeks to overtake an area of traditional state authority by imposing an unprecedented demand to federally dictate the private medical decisions of millions of Americans. Such action challenges traditional notions of federalism,' Schelp wrote in his order. Even under an exceedingly broad interpretation of federal powers, 'Congress did not clearly authorize CMS to enact ... this politically and economically vast, federalism-altering, and boundary-pushing mandate,' Schelp wrote."
Read more: https://www.wmur.com/article/federal-judge-vaccine-rule-health-workers-new-hampshire/38378789
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