KAISER HEALTH NEWS – The Biden administration withdrew its order that would have required about 84 million private employees to be vaccinated or test weekly for covid. OSHA says it’s working on a revised version of the rule.
NBC News: Biden Administration Withdraws Vaccine-Or-Test Mandate For Large Employers
The Biden administration is withdrawing its Covid vaccination-or-test requirement for large employers, citing the Supreme Court’s recent decision to block the rule. The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, said Tuesday that the withdrawal of the emergency mandate would be effective Wednesday. The Supreme Court this month blocked the mandate, which required larger businesses to ensure that workers are vaccinated against Covid-19 or wear masks and get tested weekly. The court’s conservative majority said the administration had gone too far in imposing such a sweeping requirement on the country’s businesses. (Finn, 1/25)
Modern Healthcare: OSHA Withdraws COVID Vaccine Mandate For Employers
OSHA’s emergency temporary standard had sought to require employers with at least 100 employees to develop, implement and enforce vaccination policies, with exceptions for those that instead required employees to either get vaccinated or undergo regular testing for COVID-19 and wear face coverings at work. OSHA wrote in a filing Tuesday that emergency temporary standards, like the one being withdrawn, also serve as proposed rules. The agency noted the vaccination policy still exists as a proposed rule, which received “robust participation” from more than 100,000 commenters that will be available for public review. (Bannow, 1/25)
The Hill: Biden Administration Withdraws Its Vaccine-Or-Test Mandate For Businesses
Given the Supreme Court’s decision, the Biden administration filed a motion on Tuesday to have the existing lawsuits that were filed against the employer vaccine mandate dismissed. Twenty-seven Republican-led states and a coalition of businesses had brought those legal challenges against the mandate. “The federal government respectfully moves to dismiss the petitions challenging the Vaccination and Testing emergency temporary standard (Vaccination and Testing ETS) issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to address the grave danger of COVID-19 in the workplace,” the Biden administration said in a motion. (Vakil, 1/25)
In related news —
Bloomberg: Covid-19: Few Employers To Drop Vaccine Mandate After Supreme Court Ruling
More than one-third of U.S. employers still plan to implement a vaccine mandate despite the Supreme Court’s rejection of a federal rule that would have required workers to get shots or periodic tests. Thirty-five percent of companies polled by Gartner Inc. last week said the court’s Jan. 13 ruling won’t derail their plans to require vaccinations, compared with just 4% that said they’re now dropping their mandate. A further 29% haven’t made a decision yet, while 12% said they’re now less likely to impose a requirement. (Boyle, 1/25)
WUSF Public Media: Florida Has Ended Its Appeal To Biden’s COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement For Health Care Workers
After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this month that backed the Biden administration, Florida has dropped its appeal in a legal fight against federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements for health care workers. Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office filed a motion Friday to dismiss an appeal that was filed at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That appeal came after a Pensacola-based district judge in November refused to block the vaccination requirements for workers at hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers. The motion cited a Jan. 13 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the vaccination requirements in cases from other parts of the country. (Saunders, 1/25)
