Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Florida would not be enforcing the vaccine mandate recently upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States aimed at healthcare workers.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued two decisions impacting vaccine mandates in the United States. SCOTUS issued a stay on the Biden Administration’s OSHA-based vaccine mandate for businesses with over 100 employees, striking a blow to Biden. However, the high court upheld the vaccine mandate put into place by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for healthcare providers.
“The state of Florida is not going to serve as the Biden Administration’s biomedical police,” said Christina Pushaw, spokeswoman for DeSantis in an email to the USA TODAY Network-Florida. “Firing unvaccinated healthcare workers, many of whom have infection-conferred immunity, is unethical and unscientific on its face.”
Pushaw continued by saying the mandates do not do anything to keep anyone safe.
Patients are not safe “because hospitals in California and other states are now requiring vaccinated, COVID-infected healthcare workers to treat patients due to staffing shortages — which were exacerbated by vaccine mandates. How does that keep anyone safe?”
DeSantis continued by saying Florida has added protections to workers.
“The medical mandate for the nurses and doctors what they’re trying to do is insane. In Florida, we provided protections, so they were rehired,” said DeSantis.
The Florida Health Care Association (FHCA) said the mandate would put an even further strain on the nursing home industry.
“…long term care is experiencing a historic labor crisis. We are extremely concerned that the court’s decision to allow the CMS mandate to go forward will cause nursing homes to lose even more staff at a time when we are grappling with significant staffing shortages that are impacting access to care.”
DeSantis also said Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who sided with SCOTUS’ liberal justices, had no backbone.
“But honestly, Roberts and Kavanaugh did not have a backbone on that decision,” DeSantis said. “That’s just the bottom line.”
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at the Florida Capital Star and the Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
I love what the governor wants to do here, but enforcement of this mandate doesn’t take place at the state level. The federal government will simply stop sending federal money to any non-compliant medical facility that takes CMS funds.