Appeals court panel blocks worker virus vaccine mandate

NEW ORLEANS >> A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday lifted a nationwide ban against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers, instead blocking the requirement in only certain states and creating the potential for patchwork enforcement across the country.

The decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals kept a preliminary injunction in place for 14 states that had collectively sued in federal court in Louisiana. It altered a Nov. 30 ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who originally applied his order nationwide.

A separate preliminary injunction on appeal before the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applies to 10 additional states. That means the vaccine requirement for Medicare and Medicaid providers is blocked by courts in about half the states but not in the other half.

“This vaccine rule is an issue of great significance currently being litigated throughout the country. Its ultimate resolution will benefit from `the airing of competing views’ in our sister circuits,” the ruling from three 5th Circuit judges said.

At issue is a rule published Nov. 5 by the

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid that applied to a wide range of health care providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding. It required their workers to receive the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 6 and be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4. It was projected to affect more than 17 million workers in about 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers.

The agency said on Dec. 2 that it would not enforce the vaccine rule while court injunctions were in place. It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether the agency would continue to suspend the rule for all states or seek to go ahead with it in states no longer subject to the injunctions.

About 85% of adults nationwide already have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But Biden contends his various workforce vaccine mandates are an important step to drive up vaccination rates and contain the virus outbreak, which has killed about 800,000 people in the U.S.

Courts that have blocked the mandates for health workers, federal contractors and medium-to-large-sized businesses all have said the Biden administration likely exceeded the executive powers spelled out in law. The administration has continued to say it is on firm legal ground.