Vaccine Requirements Are Essential to Protect Workers, Patients, and Communities
Washington, DC — Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on cases challenging the vaccine and testing requirements from CMS and OSHA. Legal and public health experts agree these policies are essential to combatting the COVID-19 crisis and are well within the legal authority of both agencies. In response, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:
“Vaccines are the most powerful tool we have to fight this pandemic — period. There is no legitimate scientific or medical support for the position taken by those asking the courts to stop the Biden administration’s requirements. The legal attacks are the work of Republican lawmakers and dark money groups that are pandering to their base and putting partisan politics ahead of public health. If the Supreme Court blocks these vaccine standards, it will severely and irreparably harm patients and workers and put the lives of millions at risk.”
Background
- Requirements Improve Vaccination Rates And Save Lives. In a recent filing, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote the OSHA vaccine or test requirement would “save over 6,500 worker lives and prevent over 250,000 hospitalizations over the course of six months.” Vaccine requirements are an extremely effective tool to increase vaccination rates, in the private sector and among health care systems. Aftering issuing a vaccine requirement, United Airlines reported that 99.7 percent of its 67,000 member workforce complied and is vaccinated. HHS Secretary Bercerra has “cited examples of health care systems that had adopted vaccination requirements with 99.5%, 99%, and 95% compliance.”
- Experts Agree, Vaccination Requirements Are Needed To End the Pandemic. An amicus brief filed by former HHS Secretaries and CMS administrators described broad support from medical and public health experts for the CMS rule, stating “53 organizations—that together represent essentially the entire health care profession in the United States—have reached the same conclusion. They ‘advocate that all health care and long-term care employers require their workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.’” More than a dozen medical groups, 30 deans of leading academic programs, and 104 leading public health and health policy scholars have signed amicus briefs or publicly supported vaccination requirements for private sector workers.
- Americans Support Vaccination Requirements. There is overwhelming support for the CMS and OSHA vaccination rules. A December poll from Hart Research found 64 percent of Americans support the OSHA vaccine or test rule and 66 percent back the CMS vaccination requirement.
For more information on the lawsuits, click here.