The US government on Tuesday withdrew its requirement that employees of all companies in the country that have 100 workers or more be vaccinated or present negative covid-19 test results weekly, after the Supreme Court ruled against the measure. .
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the US Department of Labor (OSHA, for its acronym in English) confirmed in a document published in the country’s Federal Register that it has withdrawn the standard it had developed in this regard, and that it was going to enter into force in February.
In a statement, OSHA stressed that it “strongly recommends” the vaccination of all workers in the country, and that it is working to “complete a permanent standard” aimed at ensuring the safety of employees in the midst of the pandemic.
The measure comes less than two weeks after the US Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, blocked Biden’s mandate for the country’s large companies, which would have affected some 80 million workers, more than two-thirds of the country’s workforce. .
Several business groups and 27 states led by conservatives sued the Biden government to annul the measure, and finally six of the nine Supreme Court justices believed that the federal Executive did not have enough authority to issue such an order.
The Biden administration had calculated that his mandate would save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations in just six months.
Instead, the Supreme Court did give the green light to another Biden mandate for professionals at more than 50,000 US health facilities to be vaccinated, those that receive federal subsidies from the Medicare or Medicaid programs, and in which some work. 17 million people.
The US is the country in the world most affected by the pandemic in absolute terms, with more than 72 million cases of covid-19 and more than 871,900 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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