Missouri’s attorney general praises federal judge’s ruling on vaccine mandate for health care workers

A federal judge in St. Louis has issued a ruling that blocks the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on health care workers in ten states.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R) praises the ruling, noting that Missouri was the first state to file suit against the vaccine mandate on healthcare workers.

“And the court noted that the mandate will cause a loss of staffing in many instances that will result in, and I quote, no care at all as some facilities will be forced to close altogether, end-quote,” Schmitt says.

Schmitt briefed reporters Monday afternoon, on the steps of the Eagleton Courthouse in downtown St. Louis. Schmitt predicts an appeal, and says the issue will likely end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nine other states are included in the lawsuit.

“This is about individual freedom, this is about individual rights. And we’ve succeeded in persuading the court that this mandate violated all of those tenets,” says Schmitt.

The federal judge ruled that Congress did not give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid authority to enact the mandate.

Mandate supporters say it’s about protecting health of health care employees and the health of patients.

The Biden administration’s rule would have required workers to receive their first dose of the COVID vaccine by December 6, and their second dose by January.