RT
A US federal appeals court has reinstated the Biden administration’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate for large private businesses, reversing an injunction by another court last month to pause the vaccine and testing requirement.
In its ruling on Friday, the Sixth US Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio upheld the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enforce the mandate, which it called an “important step” in curtailing coronavirus transmission.
Vaccination and medical examinations are both tools that OSHA historically employed to contain illness in the workplace, Judge Julia Gibbons wrote in her majority opinion. She said the mandate was therefore “not a novel expansion of OSHA’s power” but an “existing application of authority to a novel and dangerous worldwide pandemic.”
The mandate, introduced in November, applied to private businesses with at least 100 employees and would have affected 80 million workers. Under threat of fines, businesses were told to ensure their staff were fully vaccinated by January 4 or have them submit weekly Covid-19 tests in order to work. Unvaccinated workers would also have had to wear masks indoors from December 5.
