A Texas federal judge has blocked the Biden administration’s order for federal employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the latest setback to the administration’s pandemic response. Brown cited the Supreme Court’s decision last week that prevented the administration from enforcing a requirement that all businesses with at least 100 employees mandate that workers get vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. The Supreme Court did uphold vaccine mandates on most health care workers. The mandate, which was first announced by President Biden last September, ordered more than 3.5 million federal employees to be vaccinated or face termination — with some medical or religious exemptions. Unlike the vaccine requirement for private businesses, federal employees were not given the option to test weekly for COVID-19 instead of receiving the vaccine.
