Repeal or revisit the court case permitting COVID-19 vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.
On November 5, 2021, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule requiring staff working in Medicare- or Medicaid-certified facilities to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption. In a narrow 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court permitted CMS to enforce the rule nationwide affecting an estimated more than 10 million health care workers.
The Supreme Court cited evidence claiming the vaccine would help prevent the spread of nosocomial COVID-19 infection, and ruled the mandate would protect patients from infection through transmission by healthcare workers.
Since this ruling on January 13, 2022, mounting evidence shows that the COVID-19 vaccines do not help prevent transmission of disease and may pose risk to individuals receiving the vaccine. This ruling should be revisited as the reason it was supported is no longer justifiable. As of now, the mandate forces healthcare workers to put themselves in harm’s way while conferring no benefit to their patients.