A US appeals court confirmed on Friday its decision to block an executive order from US President Joe Biden, which dictates that companies with 100 or more workers ensure that their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to the ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, to which Efe had access, the Biden Administration “will not be able to take any measures to implement or enforce the mandate until there is a new court order.”
In that decision, Judge Kurt Engelhardt found that the order issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is “too broad,” meaning that it does not differentiate between businesses and workplaces.
“The public interest also benefits by maintaining our constitutional structure and by maintaining the freedom of individuals to make personal decisions in accordance with their own convictions, even when those decisions frustrate government officials,” Engelhardt wrote.
In this way, the appeals court confirmed this Friday the decision it made last Saturday when it temporarily stopped Biden’s mandatory vaccination order for employees of companies with one hundred or more workers.
This guideline also established that, in case of not wanting to be vaccinated, the workers of these large companies should undergo weekly tests and also wear a mask at all times.
That was then the most significant measure applied to date in the workplace against the pandemic by the Government, since it can affect up to 84 million private-sector workers, according to White House calculations.
About 70% of the adult population in the United States is already vaccinated with the full schedule, a figure that has risen in recent months since the government began to put pressure on companies to force their workers to receive the serum.