Op-Ed: Here’s how Biden can fix the Supreme Court’s terrible mistake in the vax or mask case
LA TimesThere is a lot to dislike about the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the Biden administration’s requirement that workers either vaccinate against COVID-19 or test and mask at work. The majority thus decided that OSHA’s vaccine rule was impermissible because vaccines “cannot be undone at the end of the work day.” High quality masks, though, can be taken off after work. Such a rule would fix the court’s complaint about the prior OSHA order precisely because it would be limited to the workplace dangers posed by COVID-19, without extending further. Rather than requiring employers to adopt a mandatory vaccination policy with an exception for employers that instead require unvaccinated workers to test and mask, OSHA’s new regulation would make employers mandate worker testing and masking first, with an exception allowing employers to waive this rule only for the vaccinated. Indeed, reenacting OSHA’s COVID workplace safety rule as a mask-or-vax mandate would comport precisely with the conservative justices’ majority opinion.