Covid-19: the American Supreme Court examines the vaccine obligation of 90 million employees

As cases soar, 126,000 people are hospitalized in the United States for Covid, and a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, involving 1.2 million adults vaccinated (twice with Pfizer or Moderna , once with Johnson & Johnson), shows that 0.015% developed serious illness resulting in hospitalization or death, the United States Supreme Court is putting a lot of pressure on its shoulders.

The institution almost sacred in the eyes of Americans, guarantor of their individual freedoms, examines this Friday urgently the obligation to be vaccinated for millions of employees. Last September, failing to convince the reluctant, President Joe Biden had introduced compulsory vaccination, particularly in companies with more than 100 employees, unless there was medical or religious objection.

The implementing decrees, published in early November, set at the beginning of January the deadline for employees to receive their first dose or otherwise agree to undergo a weekly screening, under penalty of a fine for their employers.

Several republican states, as well as employers’ organizations, had then increased the number of legal remedies, which led to contradictory decisions, and postponed the application of the measure.

The decision will not be known for several weeks

Asked to rule, the Supreme Court agreed on December 22 to devote an exceptional hearing to this question with heavy health and political issues. In addition to the obligation for employees of private companies with more than 100 employees – two thirds of employees in the private sector, or 80 million people -, it will also decide on the mandate imposed on employees of health structures participating in Medicare programs. or Medicaid and as such receive federal grants; they would represent 10.3 million employees. The Sages’ decision should be rendered within a few weeks.

Oral argument should last more than two hours. The Supreme Court being closed to the public, the debates will be relayed in live audio. The institution announced this week that the nine vaccinated judges had received their booster shots.

In its argument, the Democratic administration justifies the measure in the name of the health emergency when workplaces are major sources of contamination. The vaccination obligation “will save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over the next six months,” said State representative before the Court, Elizabeth Prelogar.

But for 26 employers’ associations, the rule “will impose irreparable harm to thousands of companies” which will either have to finance the costs of tests of reluctant employees, or face “massive departures” of their workforce. For the refractory Republican States, the obligation made to employees of health structures “threatens to create a crisis in rural America” since “millions of employees will have to choose between losing their jobs or complying with an illegal federal obligation”. It “also encroaches on the sovereignty of States”.

Abuse of authority for republican states, astronomical costs for companies

In response, Washington gives as an example a hospital in Houston (Texas) where only 153 employees out of 26,000 have resigned so as not to have to comply with an obligation of vaccination. And several large American companies, such as United Airlines or the meat giant Tyson Foods, have required their employees to be vaccinated without causing major concern.

The Supreme Court, which has six conservative magistrates out of nine, has so far validated the vaccine obligations imposed in academia or by local authorities.

The United States, where only 62% of the population is fully vaccinated due to severe political divides on the issue, has so far recorded more than 58 million cases and 833,000 deaths. 40 million adults still refuse to be vaccinated.