The Un-Mandated Vaccine Mandate

Last month Joe Biden announced his administration was mandating Covid19 vaccines for millions of the nation’s employees. But four weeks later guidance on the rule, which was largely characterized as an executive order, has yet to arrive.

“This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Biden announced from the White House on September 9th. “And it’s caused by the fact that despite America having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months free vaccines have been available in 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot.”

(Several studies have called the efficacy of the Covid19 vaccines into question. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced in July that fully 74% of new hospitalizations in the state of Massachusetts due to Covid19 were among those that were fully vaccinated. A study out of the UK also found higher rates for both hospitalizations and death to be higher among vaccinated individuals than unvaccinated.)

Biden’s rule called for the federal government, federal contractors and private companies that employ more than 100 people to mandate vaccines for their workforce. While Biden issued an executive order affecting federal employees and the employees of federal contractors, he did not issue one for private companies.

He said the U.S. Department of Labor would be developing the new rule, but as of today the agency has yet to issue guidance to state and local governments. “There is nothing there yet that gives employers any mandate,” Stephanie McFarland, spokeswoman for the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, told The Federalist this week. “The president made an announcement on this asking OSHA to do it, but we’ve not yet seen anything come from it yet.”

The attorneys general of twenty-four states announced they would challenge Biden’s rule in court, but they have not filed their lawsuits yet because no mandate has been issued.

The sleight of hand of announcing a mandate that purports to be an executive order but is little more than a press release, may have been deliberate. Announcing an order but never actually issuing one may force corporations to comply while shielding the action from legal action.

“The mandate’s nonexistence shields the Biden administration from legal challenges that may ultimately restrict the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s authority,” writes Bruce Atkinson in the Wall Street Journal. “Yet the mandate is still effective at compelling industries and companies into compliance, as it leaves room for any eventual issuance to target noncompliant entities.”

“This implied cudgel is particularly effective on industries and companies that are dependent on federal spending or the goodwill of federal regulators. The nonexistent mandate also allows so-inclined state and local governments and companies to issue their own mandates, seemingly in lockstep with Washington,” he added.

So far, scores of U.S. employers have chosen to comply with Biden’s phantom order and mandate vaccines for their workforce – and some are facing detrimental consequences because of it. Just this weekend Southwest Airlines was forced to cancel nearly 2,000 flights because of a shortage of employees. A mass “sickout” was called by the company’s employees as a protest to the company’s mandate which gives employees until December 8th to get vaccinated or lose their jobs.

The airline blamed an air traffic control problem, as well as the weather, for the mass cancellations. As some have pointed out however, Southwest seems to be the only U.S. airline to be affected by those issues.

Amazing. Southwest Airlines is blaming the weather for 1,000+ cancelled flights and not employees calling out sick over the vaccine mandate. Weird how the weather didn’t hit other airlines. Sounds as accurate as Fauci’s science! This is only the start. Disobedience has begun!

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 10, 2021