Attorneys general from twenty-two different states has asked the Biden administration to rescind the requirement that all healthcare workers acquire the COVID-19 vaccination.
Twenty-two state attorneys general have written to the Biden administration, claiming that the federal government’s “draconian vaccination duty” is to blame for a severe lack of healthcare personnel.
The Republican attorneys general of twenty-two states, led by Montana’s AG Austin Knudsen, have petitioned HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to rescind the intermediate final rule (IFR) that authorized the federal requirement that has been in effect since November 2021. The petition was made available exclusively to Fox News Digital.
Knudsen said, “the more we go into this, the more we analyze, this interim final regulation was simply utterly arbitrary and capricious,” in an interview with Fox News Digital. However, the effectiveness of the COVID vaccination in preventing the disease’s spread was never established.
The nearly forty-page brief presented the state attorney general’s argument against the requirement, which impacts virtually every American in the healthcare industry. More than 10.5 million people in 76,000 hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and retirement communities are impacted.
The attorneys general noted in a statement that Pfizer “never assessed its immunization to see if it reduced transmission of COVID-19.” At the time CMS published the IFR, it was not known whether or not immunizations were beneficial in preventing the spread of COVID.
They state that “no data at the time absolutely indicated that the immunizations would reduce sickness and transmission.” They further warn that even people who have had a full course of vaccination against COVID-19 are still at risk since the virus has persisted in its spread despite the availability of a first-generation booster and a new, bivalent omicron booster.
However, CMS “rammed through the IFR’s draconian vaccination obligation,” as stated by the AGs.
An application stating that “evidence shows that forced immunization of millions of healthcare workers will not significantly reduce COVID transmission” was rejected.
Lawyers for the states pointed out that “far worse, the emergency vaccination duty left health care institutions… already struggling to maintain vital staff ratios under extreme conditions,”, especially in rural and border areas.
Knudsen told Fox News Digital that his office received “the No. 1 phone call and email message from healthcare personnel genuinely frightened about this” both after the regulation was issued and in the months leading up to its publication.
Ten nursing facilities in Montana, according to Knudsen, would close in 2022 owing to a lack of qualified nurses as a result of the law.
Now that “the epidemic is gone,” the petitioners argue, the Secretary and CMS should swiftly move to rescind the IFR and withdraw the State Surveyor Guidance to avoid further potential violations of various statutory and constitutional rights.
Attorneys general has stated that CMS “co-opted the states’ surveyor staffs” in order to achieve compliance. It became the federal employer of record for state surveyors under a set of instructions known as the State Surveyor Directives.
In response to the Biden administration’s justification for the mandate, the attorneys general stated that in the 57 years of Medicare’s and Medicaid’s existence, HHS had never interpreted federal statutes “to support an industry-wide vaccination duty.”
They claimed the courts “must be suspicious” of CMS’s assertion that it can implement the policy without seeking Congressional approval.
State attorneys general came to this conclusion because CMS “does not point to clear legislative permission and instead gathers a potpourri of various legislation to support its claimed power.”
It was signed by the state attorneys general of Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arizona, Nebraska, Alabama, New Hampshire, Alaska, Ohio, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, South Carolina, Indiana, Texas, Kansas, Utah, and Missouri.