Lo and behold, it turns out that proposing and announcing a Covid-19 vaccine mandate is a lot easier than actually enforcing one.
As our Dan McLaughlin has been tracking, vaccine mandates have hit a lot of obstacles in court. OSHA awaits a decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on challenges contesting the legality of the President’s orders. A judge enjoined the mandate on federal contractors. And until next year, unvaccinated federal workers will be given “counseling and education” urging them to get vaccinated – not suspended or fired.
A few days ago, Amtrak announced it will need to reduce service in January unless more employees get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Pentagon has found that while the vast majority of troops have gotten their shots, a sizeable number have refused:
Military leaders have few options to address the dissent other than to hope that, as waiver requests are denied, more troops will choose to fall in line. The alternative, the Pentagon has said, is to purge the ranks of those failing to meet requirements, though some of those roughly 40,000 service members opting out had already planned to leave the military.
In New York state, some municipalities have declared they will not enforce the governor’s edict that all establishments must require vaccinations or masks. And Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer turned some heads when she declared that the federal employer vaccine mandate is a problem: “I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees. That’s why I haven’t proposed a mandate at the state level. Some states have. We have not, we’re waiting to see what happens in court.”
As of this morning, 484 million Covid-19 vaccine shots have been administered, and 202 million Americans are fully vaccinated, and 239 million have received at least one shot. Lots of Americans were willing to get vaccinated, and would urge others to do so. But the public support for firing unvaccinated workers appears pretty thin — and so far, most judges seem pretty unconvinced that this is a legitimate and Constitutional expression of government authority.