22 States Urge Biden Administration to Repeal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Health Care Workers

A healthcare worker prepares COVID-19 vaccines at a clinic in Florida on May 20, 2021. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

A total of 22 states are calling on the Biden administration to rescind its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, in light of how vaccines provide little to no protection against infection and the growing awareness of side effects from the shots.

The mandate (IFR) was announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) at the behest of Biden in the fall of 2021. The stated goal was to lower the number of infections and to prevent prospective patients from being afraid of unvaccinated workers.

Evidence available at the time and evidence that has emerged since “demonstrates that full vaccination doesn’t prevent infection or transmission,” the 22 attorneys general, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, told CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks LaSure and Health Secretary Xavier Becerra in a Nov. 17 letter.

Delta has since been replaced by Omicron, a milder COVID-19 variant against which vaccines have performed considerably worse, including against severe illness, the officials noted. Breakthrough infections, or infections despite vaccination, have become increasingly common. And there’s a growing awareness of the side effects linked to the vaccines, including heart inflammation.

“Yet the outdated emergency IFR remains in force,” they said.

The attorneys general said the mandate “modestly reduced patients’ risk of contracting COVID” but intensified staffing shortages and limited patients’ access to medical care, and should be rescinded now.

Representatives for CMS and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

“The mandate has limited many patients’ access to needed medical care and imposed substantial costs on patients and health care workers without any corresponding benefits. The Biden administration should have never imposed this mandate, and CMS should now throw it in the trash bin where it belongs,” Knudsen, a Republican, said in a statement.

The Supreme Court in January blocked a different mandate for all private employers with 100 or more workers but stated that health officials had the authority to impose the health care worker mandate.

The Biden administration has kept the mandate in place in the intervening months.

The case is still alive in district court, having been remanded by an appeals court following the Supreme Court ruling. A magistrate judge recommended on Nov. 3 that the case be dismissed, but U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, the Trump appointee overseeing the case, hasn’t ruled on that recommendation.

Knudsen was joined by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Patterson, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, and Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill. All are Republicans.