Ten states sue the US over vaccine mandate for healthcare workers

Ten states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block the Biden Administration's vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in the country, followed by a court decision that temporarily halted the requirement for workers of all large employers to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. The new suit is filed in U.S. District Court in eastern Missouri and claims that the rule issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week "threatens with job loss millions of health care workers who risked their lives in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic to care for strangers and friends in their communities.”

The ten states also argue that the rule “threatens to exacerbate an alarming shortage of health care workers, particularly in rural communities, that has already reached a boiling point.” They say that any further losses could endanger patients and cause devastating adverse effects on health care services. However, the broader point echoes a separate lawsuit filed by many of the Republican-led states that oppose the vaccine mandate for private employers with 100 workers or more, arguing that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not have the authority to dictate such a policy. 

Source: The New York Times