8. Judge halted vaccine mandate for health care workers
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The Biden administration’s efforts intended to thwart the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace and help put an end to the pandemic were at least temporarily derailed this fall as several states filed lawsuits challenging the vaccine mandates on large private employers and health care workers.
On Nov. 29, a U.S. District Court judge in St. Louis issued a preliminary injunction halting the implementation in several states of a Biden administration COVID-19 vaccine mandate for millions of health care workers. The story was the 8th most read workers compensation-related story of the year on Business Insurance’s website.
A second preliminary injunction affecting other states was issued the next day by a federal judge in Louisiana.
The health care mandate called for staff at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs — about 17 million workers — to have at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 6 and be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022.
On Dec. 15, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued an order effectively allowing the mandate to be enforced in about half of the states in the country. The order did not affect the orders issued in either Louisiana or Missouri, leaving holds on the mandate in place in 24 states.
The issue is expected to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court.
