Statewide Iowa — Governor Kim Reynolds has signed the State of Iowa onto three separate lawsuits that are challenging Biden Administration COVID vaccination requirements in the workplace.
In response to one lawsuit, federal courts have temporarily blocked an OSHA rule to require businesses with more than 100 employees to ensure workers are vaccinated for COVID or tested regularly.
The latest lawsuit Reynolds has joined was filed by 10 states on Wednesday and challenges a requirement that most U.S. health care workers get vaccinated. Reynolds says a COVID vaccine mandate for employees in facilities that treat patients receiving Medicare or Medicaid benefits could be devastating to Iowa’s nursing homes as some workers are threatening to quit rather than get vaccinated.
An AARP analysis released Thursday indicated 71 percent of Iowa nursing home staff have been fully vaccinated, an increase of about four percent from early October. Reynolds got a dose of Johnson and Johnson’s COVID vaccine on live television and has encouraged Iowans to get vaccinated. She says the reluctance some Iowans have about getting a COVID shot is based on an array of factors, including what she says is an arbitrary decision to choose businesses with 100 or more workers for one of the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandates — and to exempt Postal Service workers.
Reynolds made her comments to Radio Iowa after appearing at a Veterans Day ceremony at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery. Officials in the Biden Administration say the federal government clearly has the authority to protect workers from grave danger and — with about 13-hundred Americans dying of COVID daily — the threat from the virus is ongoing and overwhelming. Some of the nation’s largest companies have COVID vaccine requirements. Tyson Foods announced in late October that more than 96 percent of its employees were vaccinated.
