The United States Supreme Court heard on Friday the challenges to President Joe Biden’s attempt to force millions of workers in the country to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to stop the spread of the pandemic.
“Why is this not necessary to reduce serious risk?” of the spread of the virus, Judge Elena Kagan asked the lawyer representing business associations that oppose the president’s policy.
“This is a pandemic in which almost a million people have died,” the magistrate commented. “It is by far the greatest public health hazard this country has faced in the last century. And this is the policy most aimed at stopping all this ”.
Scott Keller, a former Texas attorney general who represents business associations, said the rule requiring employees of companies that employ at least 100 people to be vaccinated against COVID would lead many workers to resign.
“It would cause the permanent displacement of workers, which would affect our national economy,” Keller said. “Part of the problems we are seeing with this standard is that it is not really intended to regulate a hazard in the workplace.”
“It is a danger that we all face simply by waking up in the morning.” Judge Stephen Breyer indicated that “some people can resign, maybe three percent.”
After months of public appeals to people who are hesitant or reluctant to get their shots, Biden stepped up the pressure in September. “We have been patient, but our patience is wearing thin,” he said.
The Democratic president made COVID vaccines mandatory in businesses employing 100 or more workers, as well as healthcare workers in facilities that receive federal funds.
Unvaccinated employees would have to submit weekly negative tests and wear masks at work.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) gave companies until February 9 to comply with the rules or face the possibility of fines.
“Unvaccinated Americans continue to face a real threat of serious illness and death, including from omicron,” White House spokeswoman Jan Psaki said in a statement.
“Irreparable damage”
The obligation to get vaccinated was immediately questioned by some Republican lawmakers and business owners as a violation of individual rights and an abuse of power by the government.
There was a wave of lawsuits and the conservative-majority US highest court is holding a special hearing to decide whether the mandates can be implemented while the lawsuits are processed.
A decision is expected in a few weeks.
Businesses with 100 or more employees represent roughly two-thirds of the private sector workforce, some 80 million people.
The obligation to vaccinate health workers affects approximately 10 million people.
However, a group of 26 business associations considered that the imposition of vaccination “will inflict irreparable damage to hundreds of thousands of companies.”
The companies will be forced to pass on the costs of vaccines and tests to consumers, which will result in “even higher prices at a time of record inflation,” they argued.
Another possibility is that they are transferred to unvaccinated employees, “who will stop working en masse rather than suffer additional burdens each week.”
“The resulting job shock will devastate already fragile supply chains and labor markets,” they concluded.
Republican-ruled states, led by Missouri, said that forcing healthcare workers to get vaccinated “threatens to create a crisis in healthcare facilities in rural America.”
“Millions of workers would be being forced to choose between losing their jobs or complying with an illegal federal mandate,” they argued.
Several large US corporations, including meat giant Tyson Foods and United Airlines, imposed vaccination mandates in September without major disruption.
The Supreme is made up of six conservative and three liberal magistrates. All of them have been vaccinated and received booster doses, according to the organism itself.
The court previously upheld the vaccination obligation imposed on university students and health workers by local authorities, but also stopped federal decisions related to the pandemic, for example lifting a moratorium on home evictions.
If the court blocks the government’s decision to impose vaccination, it would be a huge blow to Biden, who has made controlling the pandemic one of his priorities and is fighting an increase in cases due to the omicron variant.
Vaccination has become a subject of political polarization in the United States, where 62% of the population is vaccinated.
The country has so far recorded more than 58 million coronavirus cases and more than 830,000 deaths.
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