Biden vaccine mandate: Small business advocacy group prepares to sue administration
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FIRST ON FOX: A conservative, small business advocacy group is preparing to sue the Biden administration over its coronavirus vaccine requirement for all employers with more than 100 workers.
The president announced last week that his administration will require businesses of a certain size to mandate vaccinations among their employees or conduct weekly COVID-19 tests in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and tasked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with writing and implementing the rule.
"President Biden's vaccine mandate on small businesses is unconstitutional and a dramatic overreach of federal authority," Alfredo Ortiz, CEO and president of the Job Creators Network (JCN) said in a Thursday statement to Fox News. "To hold the Biden Administration accountable and stand up for small businesses, Job Creators Network plans to file a lawsuit to block the implementation of this order."
Isabel Blas, a server at Crafty Crab, a seafood restaurant in Charlotte. (Fox Business)
The JCN touts itself as "THE voice of small businesses in America" on its website.
"We are filing this lawsuit with JCN small business members and it will be supported by Job Creators Network Foundation’s newly created Legal Action Fund," Ortiz said.
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The lawsuit will only be filed after OSHA issues an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to enact the requirement.
"Small businesses are already contending with a historic labor shortage and this order will add expensive new barriers to finding and keeping employees, causing significant harm at the worst possible time," Ortiz said. "The federal government doesn't have the power to require small businesses to carry out its de facto national vaccine mandate. JCN's lawsuit intends to block this federal power grab."
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Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation, said the JCNF Legal Action Fund's "strong defense is especially needed now as governments continue to expand their attacks on small businesses."
Houston construction company holds a vaccine clinic for Texas construction workers. (Fox News)
There are currently more than 90,000 people hospitalized with the virus across the country, and there are 1,262 new COVID-19 deaths being reported every day over the last seven days — a 10% increase compared to the last calendar week.
More than half of the entire U.S. population have received both vaccine doses, while more than 60% have received at least the first dose.
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In June, 99.5% of all COVID-19 deaths were of unvaccinated people. There have been a total of 14,115 U.S. deaths as a result of breakthrough cases, or COVID-19 cases that occurred in vaccinated individuals, and 70% of those vaccinated individuals were older than 65. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that no COVID-19 vaccine is 100% effective against the virus.
The CDC has also reported two serious yet rare side effects of the vaccine, anaphylaxis, which can be treated immediately, and thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), which occurred in seven out of 1 million women under 50 who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.