The Biden administration announced a Jan. 4 deadline for its employer vaccine mandate. That means some 84 million employees and 17 million health care workers have two months to become fully vaccinated. Officials say the federal mandate preempts any state or local laws. OSHA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will implement the rules. Violations could include fines of up to nearly $14,000 for each infraction, with an increased fine if the violation is found to be “willful.”
Several Republican governors and attorneys general have vowed to fight the new rule in court. And 19 states are suing the Biden administration over the mandates. Texas sued individually in a federal court in Galveston. Another lawsuit, filed in a federal district court in Missouri, involves Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. And another lawsuit, filed in a federal district court in Georgia, involves Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia.