The US COVID vaccine mandate by executive order requires U.S. Government contractors to be vaccinated by 18 January 2022. Was suspended by a court order of the District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
There were COVID vaccine mandates for health care workers, private sector employees, Federal government employees, Military personals, Noncitizen air travelers. Some still stand and some have been suspended by a US Court.
Vaccine mandates for health workers in facilities that receive funding from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services are required to be vaccinated by 4 January 2022.
On 30 November 2021 by order of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, the vaccine mandate on health workers was suspended.
Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers Revived by 5th US Circuit Court.
As a countermeasure by the American Government, on Dec 15, A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived in 26 U.S. states a COVID-19 mandate issued by President Joe Biden’s administration. This now requires millions of healthcare workers to get vaccinated.
The nationwide ban on President Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate faced opposition when a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that a lower court can only cancel the vaccine mandate in only the 14 states that had filed a lawsuit and not a nationwide ban. This was a win for Biden at least in 26 states.
This vaccine mandate remains temporarily blocked by the 5th U.S Circuit in 24 states. 10 other states and the 14 states and are: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.
The 5th Circuit also blocked the administration’s workplace vaccine-or-testing mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees.
The 5th Circuit panel included Judge Leslie Southwick, Judge James Graves, and Judge Gregg Costa. They said the Biden administration had not made a strong showing that it was likely to prove during the litigation that it has the authority to impose the rule.
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The panel said that the Biden administration argues that the vaccine mandate will potentially save thousands of lives monthly. There might be a spike with the arrival of the omicron variant of the virus and also winter is here and might make the virus thrive.
Since the start of the Covid Pandemic in the USA; as at the time of this report, according to reports by New York Times and Our World In Data; 50.3 million cases, 801,000 deaths in the United States with California topping the list with 5.18million cases and 75,718 deaths, Texas 4.4million cases and 75,112 deaths, Florida with 3.72 million cases and 62,074 deaths, New York with 2.88m cases and 57,867 deaths and the fifth is Illinois with 1.93m cases and 30,076 deaths.
A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
In a bid to effect a nationwide vaccine mandate, and review the ban of vaccine Mande on a workplace with at least 100 employees. A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, dominated by judges appointed by Republican presidents has sided with the Biden administration, agreeing to hear the case initially before a three-judge panel rather than all 16 active judges on the court.
