Submit your opposition to the COVID vaccine mandate for private employers.
We’ve been telling you about the sweeping vaccine mandates issued by the federal government. As part of that initiative, the Biden Administration ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue an emergency standard mandating that private employers with over 100 employees institute a COVID vaccine and testing regime at the workplace. The comment period on this regulation closes in just a few days—we must oppose this overreaching rule that restricts our health autonomy!
The full text of OSHA’s “Emergency Temporary Standard” (ETS) can be viewed here, but the major thrust is the above-mentioned vaccine mandate for employers with more than 100 employees, with an option for weekly COVID testing.
We reported recently that a federal court has temporarily blocked enforcement of OSHA’s mandate. The judge’s ruling stated that Biden’s OSHA mandate was “staggeringly overbroad” and “fatally flawed” while simultaneously being overinclusive (applying indiscriminately to all industries and workplaces in America despite obvious differences in risks faced) and underinclusive (are those with 99 co-workers at such a greater risk than those with 98 co-workers?).
While this is positive news, we must keep up the pressure and submit comments to the docket opposing this restrictive mandate.
As we’ve stated previously, the legality of OSHA passing a rule to mandate a vaccine or testing for private employers is in serious question. OSHA can only issue an ETS if it determines that “employees are exposed to grave danger” from exposure to harmful substances or agents; further, the ETS must be determined to be “necessary to protect employees from such danger.” It is highly contestable that COVID vaccines meet these standards. As constitutional legal expert Jonathan Emord, Esq. points out, a large number of workers telecommute, work outside, have naturally-acquired immunity, or are in a low-risk category (young and healthy), falling short of the legal requirements for OSHA to issue an ETS. States and other groups have indicated plans to challenge the forthcoming rule in court.
The 34 legal challenges to the OSHA rule echo many of these issues, arguing that:
- The rule doesn’t address a workplace hazard. Rather, it deals with a threat that exists everywhere in the world.
- The rule doesn’t address a “grave” danger in the workplace.
- The rule isn’t sufficiently tailored to address workplace threats.
- The coronavirus is not a toxic substance.
- The rule does not substantially influence interstate commerce.
- The rule violates the Tenth Amendment.
- OSHA’s creation of the rule is an unlawful exercise of legislative power.
There are other arguments against vaccine mandates. Being vaccinated doesn’t make you less likely to spread the virus. In people who have contracted COVID, the mucous membranes release antibodies to protect the nose and mouth, and this helps reduce viral spread. COVID vaccination is largely ineffective at stimulating this secretion of antibodies in the nose. Further, all COVID vaccines currently in use have reduced effectiveness against the delta variant and likely have reduced effectiveness against the omicron variant as well.
The point is that vaccination status is not a guarantee that an individual is not infected and capable of spreading the virus to others, meaning that vaccine mandates are not only coercive, but do not accomplish one of the main goals – preventing the spread of disease – that they set out to achieve.
Action Alert! Click the button below to post a message to the regulations.gov docket in opposition to the OSHA COVID ETS mandating COVID vaccines and testing. Please send your comment immediately!
