Surgeon Vivek Murthy speaks at the White House in Washington, DC on July 15, 2021.
(Tom Brunner/Reuters)
In an interview with ABC, the Director of the U.S. Department of Health, Vivek Murthy, stated that the Biden administration will defend its coronavirus vaccine authorization for employers with at least 100 workers. this week on Sunday.
Surgeon Dr. Vivek Murthy told @玛莎拉达兹 The Biden administration is “prepared to defend” comprehensive COVID-19 vaccine regulations in response to legal challenges and said the new requirements are “appropriate and necessary.” https://t.co/wBePNDjF7m pic.twitter.com/B3ZVCk6ODt
-This week (@ThisWeekABC) November 7, 2021
“If the president and the government do not consider these requirements to be appropriate and necessary, they will not implement them, and the government is of course prepared to defend them,” Murti told the host Maseradaz.
Raddatz pointed out that some opponents of the directive claim that if employees refuse to be vaccinated, it could lead to a shortage of workers and harm the economy.
“What I have heard time and time again from small companies, large companies and workers is that it is COVID itself that really hurts the economy,” Murthy responded. “Millions of workers have fallen ill due to COVID, and have been fired predictably. Millions more have to be quarantined. Think about how much damage this has done to businesses.”
President Biden ordered the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration on September 9 to develop a task for large employers.The task outline is Released On Thursday, companies are required to implement vaccine regulations before January 4, otherwise they will face a fine of $13,600 for each violation. If an unvaccinated employee submits a coronavirus test once a week and wears a mask at work, they will be allowed to work.
However, Murthy made the comments a day after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans issued a temporary injunction on the grounds of “serious statutory and constitutional issues.”
Louisiana and Texas and other states, businesses, and religious groups filed lawsuits in the Fifth Circuit Court, claiming that such authorizations do not fall within the jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“This is a typical legislative act – it has nothing to do with OSHA’s own purpose, which is to protect workplace safety,” the lawsuit state“In OSHA’s authorization legislation, Congress did not grant it the power to end the epidemic.”
