President Biden at a vaccination clinic. Photo by The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
With OSHA’s COVID-19 vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS) blocked by the Supreme Court, the Biden Administration is withdrawing the ETS that would have affected businesses with over 100 employees.
The Biden administration is withdrawing its Covid-19 vaccination and testing regulation aimed at large businesses, following the Supreme Court’s decision to block the rule earlier this month.
The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday it will be withdrawing the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard for businesses with 100 or more employees, according to a statement on the agency’s website.
“Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule. The agency is prioritizing its resources to focus on finalizing a permanent COVID-19 Healthcare Standard,” the statement read.
The withdrawal of the emergency temporary standard “does not affect the ETS’s continuing status as a proposed rule,” a US Department of Labor spokesperson told CNN in a statement.
“OSHA is evaluating the record and the evolving course of the pandemic. OSHA has made no determinations at this time about when or if it will finalize a Vaccination and Testing rule. The agency intends to work expeditiously to issue a final standard that will protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 hazards,” the spokesperson added.
The decision comes less than two weeks after the Supreme Court blocked the rule, dealing a major blow to President Joe Biden’s attempts to use the power of the federal government to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. OSHA’s regulation required businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated or undergo regular testing and wear face coverings at work.
“After evaluating the Court’s decision, OSHA is withdrawing the Vaccination and Testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard,” OSHA wrote in a document set to be published in the Federal Register.
“OSHA strongly encourages vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by COVID-19 in the workplace,” the agency also noted in its statement Tuesday.
The withdrawal will be effective Wednesday, according to OSHA’s statement.
I find it maddening that the people screaming the loudest about the lack of a COVID plan form the Administration keep trying to hamstring the Administration by litigating rule making like this.Report
*vaguely wonders if this has something to do with worker’s comp claims about being COVID-exposed at work*
I don’t know much about the field, of course – I teach a tiny bit about OSHA in one of my classes, but I am far from an expert.. I suppose it would be v. hard to prove on-the-job COVID exposure, unless the person claiming it could demonstrate that no one in their household exposed them and they literally went nowhere else (not even a grocery store) where they could have been exposed.
I teach on a campus in a state where vaccine mandates and mask mandates have been banned. Every day I have different students having to isolate due to exposure and I have to report who they sat near in class – some more than once during a semester. I dont’ see this improving in what remains of my career (a decade, unless I burn out and quit early, which feels increasingly likely)Report