White House backs Biden admin's COVID vaccine mandate amid Court orders to halt program

United States President Joe Biden’s administration on Sunday, 7 November defended its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for large firms in the country despite an ongoing court challenge that has temporarily frozen the program. While speaking on ABC talk show ‘This Week’, US Surgeon general Vivek Murthy said that Biden and his administration would have not introduced the requirements regarding the vaccine against Coronavirus if they didn’t think they were “appropriate and necessary”.

Murthy said, “The president and the administration wouldn't have put these requirements in place if they didn't think they were appropriate and necessary...The administration is certainly prepared to defend them.”

Meanwhile, White House chief of staff Ron Klain said that he was “quite confident” that the mandate would be upheld while citing the earlier court rulings that upheld the state-level mandates. He told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press', “It’s common sense.” The federal mandate in the centre of the controversy in the country is introduced to push millions of workers at businesses with over 100 employees into getting COVID-19 jabs or being subjected to weekly testing. The mandate is also designed as one of the most crucial efforts by the Biden administration to stem the COVID-19 pandemic under control. 

US court ordered a temporary stay

However, on Saturday, 6 November, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said that multiple petitioners opposing the mandate had raised “grave statutory and constitutional issues” and granted a temporary hold on the program. The petitioners include five conservative US states along with several private employers and other religious groups. They have questioned the federal government’s authority to issue a nationwide order regarding COVID-19 vaccines. 

While defending the mandate, US Surgeon General cited along with the history of such requirements and went as back as George Washington requiring his troops to be inoculated against smallpox. Murthy also said that while the country is recording 75,000 cases of Coronavirus every day, it is “ important to take every measure possible to make our workplaces safer.” The new COVID-19 vaccine mandate by the Biden administration will not take effect until January but Klain expressed confidence that the courts would ultimately decide to uphold it. 

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