"People Should Not Wait": White House Urges Businesses, Employers to Continue With the Vaccine Mandate Despite Court-Ordered Suspension
The White House said on Monday that businesses and employers should move with U.S. President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate despite federal court orders calling for a temporary halt to the implementation of vaccine mandate.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that people should not wait, adding that they should continue to move forward and make sure they are getting their workforce vaccinated, according to a CNBC report.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit halted the vaccine requirements on Saturday, writing that the petitions "give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues" with the vaccine mandate.
The Republican attorneys general in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, among others, have also requested the pause.
The attorneys general argued that the requirement surpass the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The Biden administration asked the court to lift the pause, dismissing the states and companies' arguments that it causes harm as "premature" with the deadlines for vaccines and testing are not until January.
White House on Vaccine Mandate's Legal Hurdles
The White House noted that it is confident that the courts will eventually approve Biden's vaccine mandate on businesses with 100 workers or more to have their workforce vaccinated against COVID or be frequently tested.
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said that he is quite confident that the validity of the requirement for vaccines will be upheld, according to a Voice of America News report. Klain described the Biden vaccine requirement as "common sense" to help put an end to the COVID pandemic in the United States.
The U.S. Supreme Court approved last month a vaccination mandate covering healthcare workers in northeastern Maine. However, it has yet to consider a broad national mandate such as Biden's order affecting private businesses or his order requiring four million federal employees and contractors working for the federal government to get vaccinated by November 22.
White House aide Cedric Richmond also defended the use of the OSHA authority, saying that OSHA's responsibility is to protect workers even if it means doing something tough.
Job Losses Over Vaccine Mandate
Meanwhile, unvaccinated workers across the U.S. are facing possible job losses due to the enforced COVID vaccine mandates, according to a Reuters report.
In cities like Chicago and Baltimore, thousands of police officers and firefighters are also at risk of losing their jobs. Mayor Lightfoot has been going against the police union in Chicago, with a third of the city's 12,770 police employees missing a Friday deadline to report their vaccination status.
Some officers have also been put on a no-pay status.
About 150 workers at the Houston Methodist hospital system had quit or were fired for refusing to get a vaccine in June, according to an NPR report. One of the affected workers in Houston Methodist hospital was registered nurse Jennifer Bridges. She started a new job with a private nursing company on the day that she was fired. She noted that there's no Medicaid or Medicare funding. Bridges said that it's all private pay, meaning that the government has no control over it.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: White House to release new details of vaccine mandate - from CNBC Television