'Enormous occupational risk': Expert says vaccine mandate ruling puts workers in danger
WASHINGTON (TND) — In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Occupational Health and Safety Administration does not have the authority to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine, saying the virus is not considered an occupational hazard for most jobs.
The decision has drawn backlash from the Biden administration and praise from business leaders.
Georgetown global health law expert Lawrence Gostin joined The National Desk Thursday to break down the legality behind the Supreme Court's ruling to strike down the president's vaccine requirement for business while upholding the mandate for federally funded medical facilities.
“It's a hyper-partisan decision that the justices have made and essentially, what they're saying is that, you know, justices might go into a hospital and they want to feel safe and so they upheld the CMS mandate but for an ordinary worker, an assembly worker, a day laborer, they don't get to get that kind of protection,” Gostin said. “The Supreme Court denied them the same safety protections that you might get in in your hospital or that the Supreme Court justices demand for themselves.”
There have been a lot of questions around OSHA and the authority it has.
About a month ago, a panel of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati ruled that the mandate appeared lawful, citing that OSHA must be able to respond to workplace dangers — COVID included.
Gostin says the Supreme Court took a different tone Thursday, cutting down OSHA’s oversight ability.
“The Supreme Court was was literally hostile to OSHA and federal regulatory powers. Basically, it said that OSHA can't regulate workplace safety issues,” Gostin said. “So this is a real blow to President Biden's COVID-19 vaccination strategy.”
The opinion that came down from the majority notes that “COVID poses a danger, but is not an occupational hazard.”
Gostin says there is no real distinction between "danger" and "occupational hazard" and says this could have other implications for workplace safety regulations.
“There's no place on Earth where you go for eight hours, every day, in a crowded room with strangers other than having to make a living and going to work,” Gostin said. “The truth is, is that COVID-19 is of enormous occupational risk. OSHA’s mandate would save over 6,000 American worker lives and probably a lot more than that and so I do believe that the Supreme Court is stringing way beyond its mandate.”
While OSHA’s mandate will not go into effect, the healthcare worker vaccine mandate will. With hospitals and long-term care facilities already facing a worker shortage, some worry the mandate will perpetuate the problem. Gostin, however, says he doesn’t see that being the case.
“Now that every healthcare worker, essentially, in America is going to have to be vaccinated, it doesn't give a doctor or nurse or someone else another job to go to if they don't want to be vaccinated. Healthcare workers have a sacred ethical duty to protect their patients and to also protect their fellow doctors and nurses and so getting vaccinated is absolutely the right thing to do,” he said.
