Texas’ legal crusade against COVID-19 vaccine mandates continues.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the Biden administration over its emergency order requiring heath workers to be inoculated against the coronavirus. In a statement issued Tuesday morning, the Republican AG called the rule “an unprecedented federal vaccine decree.”
Texas is among 10 states suing the White House over the order, which requires eligible workers at facilities participating in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs to get fully vaccinated by Dec. 6.
Under Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, Paxton’s office has filed a flurry of suits challenging efforts by the federal government, school districts and municipalities to require workers to get vaccinated by COVID vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Last week, Paxton’s office sued the Biden White House over a separate rule requiring large employers to make their staff get vaccinated or submit to frequent coronavirus tests. In October, he also filed suit against the administration for mandating that workers for federal contractors be vaccinated.
Texas ranks 28th in the nation in the percentage of its residents who have been vaccinated, roughly 54%. During the September surge in Delta variant cases, unvaccinated Texans were 20 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those were fully vaccinated, according to a new study from the state’s health department.
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This article appears in Nov 3-16, 2021.
