Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has joined a Louisiana-led lawsuit against the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for certain health care workers.As LegalReader.com has reported before, the White House has ordered that all health care facilities receiving federal funds ensure that their employees are fully vaccinated.The mandate would affect most facilities which participate in the federally-sponsored Medicare and Medicaid programs. The rule, if enforced, would affect up to 17 million workers across the United States.Biden’s vaccine guidance has been welcomed by many medical professionals: the American Medical Association, along with several other major industry groups, have said that inoculation is necessary to prevent health care workers from inadvertently infecting people who are vulnerable to coronavirus, including unvaccinated children and immunocompromised persons.it has faced stiff opposition from conservatives and people who believe that coronavirus vaccines are not safe.Cleveland.com notes that the lawsuit was originally filed by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.Landry, a Republican, has said his state will not allow the Biden administration to “bully” health care workers.

Former Vice President and current President Joe Biden on the campaign trail in 2019. Image via Flickr/user:Gage Skidmore. (CCA-BY-2.0).

“The federal government will not impose medical tyranny on Louisiana’s people without my best fight,” Landry said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.Yost, in announcing Ohio’s participation in the lawsuit, echoed Landry’s sentiment, condemning Biden’s mandate as “an unlawful use of executive power.”“The Biden Administration is playing statutory shell games with the courts, straining to justify an unjustifiable and unprecedented attempt to federalize public health policy and diminish the sovereign States’ constitutional powers,” the multi-state lawsuit says.“It’s an unlawful use of executive power,” Yost said in a separate statement. “The president does not have the authority to make health-care decisions for Americans.”Yost also said that a wide-ranging vaccine mandate could encourage many health care workers to leave their positions, thus exacerbating care wait-times across the country.“We have seen the challenges nursing homes and other facilities have had in retaining and recruiting staff,” Yost said. “This mandate, and the walkouts that will likely follow, will only make these challenges worse—leaving vulnerable Ohioans without adequate care.”Yost, notes Cleveland.com, has joined other Republican-led lawsuits against the Biden administration, including the White House’s vaccine requirement for federal contractors and for companies which employ 100 or more people.According to WKYC, more than 26,000 Ohio residents have died from novel coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.Nearly two years later, only 52% of Ohioans are fully vaccinated against the disease.

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Ohio AG Dave Yost joins lawsuit against federal COVID vaccine mandate for health care employeesOhio AG Dave Yost joins lawsuit challenging Biden vaccine mandate for health-care workers