A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday to stop the start of President Biden's national vaccine mandate for health care workers.
A federal court in Missouri issued an order on Monday that was expanded by the injunction written by Judge Terry A. Doughty. The earlier one only applied to 10 states that joined in the lawsuit against the president and his decision to require all health workers in hospitals and nursing homes to be fully vaccined by January 4.
The judge of the Western District of Louisiana wrote that the vaccine should be done by Congress. He said that it was not clear if an act of Congress mandating a vaccine would be constitutional.
He said that the lawsuit had an interest in protecting its citizens from being required to submit to vaccinations and to prevent the loss of jobs and tax revenue that may result from the mandate.
Several cities and states have already imposed their own vaccine mandates for health care workers, in an effort to contain outbreaks that were often passed from communities into medical settings. The Delta variant swept through nursing homes, causing spikes in staff and resident infections, as well as overwhelming hospitals in many states with another Covid surge.
Before the president began calling for nationwide compliance, some of the larger hospital chains and nursing home operators began requiring staff vaccinations. The number of health care employees getting vaccinations has increased since the summer. The immunization rates among nursing home staffs are more than 70 percent, but much lower in some regions.
The Attorney General of Louisiana led a 14-state lawsuit against the federal mandate, which he said would cause holes in state budgets and cause shortages in healthcare facilities.
Millions of workers at hospitals, nursing homes, and other health facilities that rely on Medicare or Medicaid will have to be immunized under the Biden administration's vaccine mandate. Many health care providers complained that staff members who were hesitant to be immunized would leave, making it harder to fill positions, which was a problem before the swine flu epidemic.
Those complaints helped swell opposition in many states, like Texas and Florida, that have been against federal policies at the center of public health advice during the Pandemic.
More than a dozen states and some employers joined together to fight a mandate that would require private employers of 100 or more workers to have company-wide immunizations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's mandate has been temporarily blocked by an appeals court.
The injunction issued on Tuesday is the first step in the lawsuits against the vaccine mandate. The cases have to be argued before a judge, and any lower-court ruling will likely be appealed.
