Biden’s vaccine mandate gets blocked in 10 states as Omicron threat looms

United States President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for thousands of health workers was blocked in 10 states by a federal judge on Monday. The news comes as the threat of Omicron– a new variant of coronavirus– looms across the globe.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid does not have any authority provided by the United States Congress to put the vaccine mandates in place, the court order explained. 

Also Read: No apparent disruption from Biden administration’s vaccine mandate: White House

Multiple states that demonstrated their disagreement with the vaccine mandate by filing lawsuits have been exempted by Matthew Schelp, the District Judge from St. Louis.

While similar lawsuits remain pending in other states, Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming managed to get the mandate blocked.

Biden’s federal vaccination mandate would include more than 17 million workers across 76,000 health care facilities and home health care providers that get funding from the government health programmes. Those who fall under the mandate were directed to get the first dose of COVID vaccine by December 6 and the follow up dose, if applicable, by January 4.

The court order against the health care vaccine mandate comes after Biden’s administration suffered a similar setback for a broader policy. A federal court previously placed a hold on a separate rule requiring businesses with more than 100 employees to ensure their workers get vaccinated or else wear masks and get tested weekly for the coronavirus, according to reports from Associated Press.

Also Read: US to impose fully vaccinated rule for all border-crossers in January: Report

Biden’s administration contends federal rules supersede state policies prohibiting vaccine mandates and are essential to slowing the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads its wings across the globe, with multiple cases popping up in various countries including Germany, Canada, India, Netherlands, United Kingdom and many more.

Biden, in an address on Monday, said that the new variant– first discovered in South Africa— is a cause for concern but no panic.