US federal appeals court freezes Biden's vaccine rule for companies
An average of about 1,100 Americans are dying daily from Covid-19, most of them unvaccinated
A US federal appeals court issued a stay Saturday freezing the Biden administration's efforts to require workers at US companies with at least 100 employees be vaccinated against Covid-19 or be tested weekly, citing "grave statutory and constitutional" issues with the rule.
The ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit comes after numerous Republican-led states filed legal challenges against the new rule, which is set to take effect on Jan 4.
In a statement, Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda said the Labor Department was "confident in its legal authority" to issue the rule, which will be enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
"The Occupational Safety and Health Act explicitly gives OSHA the authority to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them," she said. "We are fully prepared to defend this standard in court."
An average of about 1,100 Americans are dying daily from Covid-19, most of them unvaccinated. Covid-19 has killed roughly 750,000 people in the United States.