JEFFERSON CITY, MO. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on health care workers in 10 states, calling the mandate, “arbitrary and capricious.”
The preliminary injunction issued Monday applies to a coalition of suing states. They are Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
A federal judge in Missouri said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid had no clear authority from Congress to enact the vaccine mandate for health care providers that participate in the two government programs.
Judge Shelp wrote that the injunction is warranted because “Congress did not grant CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) authority to mandate the vaccine.” Furthermore, “Whether Congress itself could impose the vaccination requirement is a tough question, one that the CMS would force to its crisis. But even if Congress has the power to mandate the vaccine and the authority to delegate such a mandate to CMS … the lack of congressional intent for this monumental policy decision speaks volumes.”
CMS failed, according to the judge, to consider alternatives to the vaccine mandate, such as daily or weekly testing.
The rule requires workers to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 6 and their second dose by Jan. 4.
