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Gov. Brian Kemp responds to federal ruling on vaccine mandate
A federal appeals court temporarily blocked the federal vaccine mandate. Kemp said it's a good indication for the lawsuit Georgia filed.
ATLANTA - The State of Georgia is suing the federal government to try to block a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health care workers.
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Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr announced the lawsuit Tuesday challenging an emergency resolution issued on Nov. 5 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that mandates full COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible staff at health care facilities that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs by early January.
"After healthcare heroes went above and beyond the call of duty to keep Americans safe and healthy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Joe Biden is now threatening their livelihood if they refuse COVID-19 vaccination," Kemp said in a statement. "Yet another unlawful mandate from this administration will only worsen worker shortages in a critical-need area as we continue to balance the everyday healthcare needs of hardworking Georgians and fighting COVID-19. We will continue to fight this repeated, unconstitutional overreach by Joe Biden and his administration in court."
Georgia is asking the court to prevent the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing the mandate, arguing that it is unlawful and unconstitutional. Other states included in the lawsuit are Louisiana, Montana, Arizona, Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.
The suit follows similar ones by Republican-led states challenging new Biden administration rules that will require federal contractors to ensure their workers are vaccinated and that businesses with more than 100 employees require their workers to get vaccinated or wear masks and get tested weekly for the coronavirus. All of the mandates are scheduled to take effect Jan. 4.
Biden’s administration contends that the federal rules supersede state policies prohibiting vaccine mandates and are essential to slowing the pandemic, which has killed more than 755,000 people in the U.S. But the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already has temporarily blocked the business vaccine rule, saying it raises "grave statutory and constitutional issues."
As the payer for Medicare and Medicaid programs, the federal government already requires providers to comply with an array of quality, health and safety requirements.
"It seems fairly easy to me for a vaccination requirement to fit in with very garden variety conditions of participation," said Sidney Watson, director of the Center for Health Law Studies at Saint Louis University.
While announcing the rule, CMS said that COVID-19 vaccine requirements by private health systems and previous vaccine mandates by states for other diseases have not led to widespread resignations of health care workers.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.