Biden administration blocked from enforcing vaccine mandates for healthcare workers

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Biden administration blocked from enforcing vaccine mandates for healthcare workers

The Biden administration was blocked from enforcing two mandates requiring millions of American workers to get vaccinated against COVID - 19, a key part of its strategy to control the spread of the coronaviruses.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, Louisiana, temporarily blocked the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services CMS from enforcing its vaccine mandate for healthcare workers until the court can resolve legal challenges.

Doughty's ruling applied to nationwide, except in 10 states where the CMS was already prevented from enforcing the rule due to a prior order from a federal judge in St. Louis.

The CMS did not have the authority to issue a vaccine mandate that would require more than 2 million unvaccinated healthcare workers to get a coronaviruses shot, according to Doughty.

According to Doughty, there is no question that mandating a vaccine to 10.3 million healthcare workers is something that Congress should not do, not a government agency.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, Frankfort, Kentucky, blocked the administration from enforcing a regulation that new government contracts must include clauses requiring contractors' employees to be vaccinated.

The contractor ruling applied in the three states that had filed the lawsuit, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, one of 13 legal challenges nationwide against the regulation. It appears to be the first ruling against the contractor vaccine mandate.

The legal setbacks for President Joe Biden's vaccine policy came as concerns that the Omicron coronaviruses variant could cause a new wave of infections and curtail travel and economic activity across the globe.

In September, Biden announced regulations to increase the U.S. adult vaccine rate beyond the current 71% as a way of fighting the epidemic, which has killed more than 750,000 Americans and weighed on the economy.

Republican state attorneys general, conservative groups and trade organizations have sued to stop the regulations.

Tuesday's ruling adds to a string of court losses for the Biden administration over its COVID 19 policies.

The most sweeping regulation, a workplace vaccine-or- testing mandate for businesses with at least 100 employees, was temporarily blocked by a federal appeals court in early November.

In August, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the administration's federal moratorium on residential evictions.