Status: 07.11.2021 8:56 a.m.
The US government wants to make corona vaccination compulsory in larger companies and in the healthcare sector. Many companies and Republican-run states oppose this. A complaint by the critics has now been successful for the time being.
The US government has suffered legal defeat in attempting to introduce compulsory corona vaccination for the majority of workers in the US. A federal appeals court in New Orleans suspended the implementation of a corresponding government order in Washington on Saturday for the time being. The court argued that there was reason to believe that the measures had “serious legal and constitutional problems”.
100 million workers affected
The government decree would affect employees of companies with more than 100 employees and certain health care workers. From January 4, employers should be obliged to require these more than 100 million workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or to have weekly negative tests.
However, the court’s rejection of these regulations is not yet final: the judges announced an accelerated review of the order against which companies and republican states, among others, had sued. On Monday, the government must first submit a reaction to the court decision, to which the plaintiffs can then respond on Tuesday.
Plaintiff: “Important Victory”
Plaintiff Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry called the court order “an important victory”. This will stop the “attack on private companies” by the Democratic President Biden. “The president will not impose medical procedures on the American people without the constitutional control over them,” Landry said.
Despite the lawsuits, the US government had been confident in advance that the vaccination code, which provides for penalties of nearly $ 14,000 per violation, will withstand legal challenges.
The vaccination requirements announced a few days ago are central components of the measures with which the Biden government wants to increase the vaccination rate and defeat the pandemic. The US vaccination campaign is making slow progress. So far, a good 58 percent of the population of around 330 million people have been fully vaccinated. In the summer, the USA was hit hard by the delta wave – but the number of infections is now falling again significantly.