Biden’s Employer Vaccine Mandate Outlives Its Usefulness Before It Even Begins

In the months that have passed since he announced it, the trajectory of the pandemic has gotten better.

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Back on September 9, President Joe Biden announced a panoply of COVID vaccine mandates, citing that he was tired of waiting on the unvaccinated to do their part: “My message to unvaccinated Americans is this: What more is there to wait for? … We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin.”

So it is with great irony that the Occupational Health and Safety Administration finally released its COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) last week, a full 56 days after Biden’s announcement. Writing for The Dispatch on Sept. 24, I addressed the problem with the timing and legal delays in mandating COVID vaccination through an OSHA ETS: “Even if it survives all legal challenges, implementation of the employer mandate may be delayed until long after it’s needed.”

There are many valid legal arguments against a sweeping mandate, even when such a mandate allows employers and employees to opt instead for weekly COVID testing. These include whether the federal government has the authority to issue such a mandate, whether COVID in the workplace rises to the level of “grave danger” required to issue an ETS, and the validity of OSHA’s 100-employee cutoff to which the ETS applies.

But from a practical standpoint, a vaccine mandate was going to be effective only if it could be issued quickly enough to address the Delta surge. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “ Among those 65 or older, an incredible 98.4 percent have received at least one dose and 85.7 percent have been fully vaccinated. ”

    I’d love for that to be true but I’m a bit skeptical. You’re telling that there’s less than 2% of 65+ people who are part of the MAGA antivax crowd? My aunt is older than 70 and she’s not vaccinated (because she has a health condition she claims means she can’t get it - or that it won’t work, which if she’s actually immune compromised is more likely true).

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    1. LostinInterwebs

      That would still be 1 million citizens. Plenty for us all to have an acquaintance who is 65+ and not vaccinated at all. And the vaccine skepticism in that MAGA group was always counter-weighted by the fact that statistically they would have witnessed more death in their cohort and likely know how important the vaccine was in prevention.

      Plus, there is a performative element to MAGA support and vaccine hesitancy. My guess is many people posture when it comes to the issue but seek the vaccine out secretly.

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        Ben Connelly

        That’s fair. I’m not really questioning the validity of the statistic. More just wondering how precise and accurate it could possibly be. For all I know it is. It just seems much higher than I would have guessed, that’s all.

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        1. LostinInterwebs

          I wouldn't have guessed that level of uptake until the Covid-19 wave hit last winter. I think that amount of daily death within your demographic rightfully scared a ton of people.

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            Ben Connelly

            That’s undoubtedly true

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          Ben Connelly

          I mean, what’s the margin of error?

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          1. LostinInterwebs

            I believe it's "demographic statistics" so it wouldn't have a margin of error. It's just dividing two "known", probably from some type of census, quantities. Obviously the exact count of those 65 years and older isn't known but it's a common approach to pull from such measurements.

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  2. Avatar photo
    rlritt

    I am so sick of this. I refuse to read anymore articles. I just wanted read this to find out one more stupid thing they can lay at the President's feet. I don't care at all if people don't get vaccinated. I don't care what happens to any of them and no longer want to hear their whining.

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    Tmcke

    Let's understand that we know far less than we imagined. In fact the disease numbers are rising again as the north gets cold. And.. as other commenters suggested, the mandate is already at work - it gave cover to employers like mine with offices across the US. So my employer recommended vaccination - also recorded vaxx status (and demanded proof) And said it was studying the mandate to determine how it impacted operations. It got most of us off the couch and into a vaccine center.

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  4. Jon

    Biden never intended for this to go into effect. Obama started this nonsense. Trump followed. And Biden took it to a new level. This madness of executive overreach needs to end.

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    Jason Gibson

    Totally agree. The mandate was unnecessary and actually will do more harm than good to the President himself!

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  6. Avatar photo
    Johntadian

    And so continues the Kabuki theater of facial napkins and an on-going drug trial using our children as guinea pigs for a chemical with zero longitudinal studies. I am vaxed and boosted and feel absolutley no responsibility to protect the willingly unvaccinated.

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  7. Raincheck

    We all want the pandemic to be over. More people being vaccinated will help with that. Businesspeople I know want the mandate. It is the policy they want in their offices, they want their staff vaccinated, and it gives them cover if it is mandated.

    I sympathize with the wish for this to be over, government mandates to be limited, and Biden to be wrong. But this is an argument for a position, not a dispassionate reading of facts. “Assuming Paxlovid” has a big impact on the next six months when it is not yet approved is aggressive. Maybe it will approved for half of that time?

    I’m old enough to remember when saving 6,500 American lives would be considered a big deal.

    I’m in half agreement here, but we need to pull back and see where we really are, not where we want to be.

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    Ray Salemi

    I say leave it. I’m okay with saving a few extra lives even if it is not necessary.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Scarlette Tarte

    Hmmm, don't know...22 states now spiking again.

    Frankly, employers should have the right to mandate people to get the vaccine. Here in Texas, governor Abbott made it illegal for businesses to mandate the vaccine. So the Biden employer mandate gives them cover to get their employees vaccinated.

    I don't know when conservatives decided that business owners should not have the freedom to run their business as they see fit, but they have definitely lost what it means to be conservative.

    No conservative worth his salt believes that businesses should not be allowed to operate in what they believe is the best way for them to operate. Just one more example of the party losing its way.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    Conventional wisdom among trial lawyers is that if the facts are against you, pound on the law. If the law is against, you pound on the facts. And if they're both against you, pound on the table.

    That's what the Biden Administration is mostly doing these days — pounding on the table for the purpose of being SEEN to pound on the table.

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