Health worker vaccine mandate blocked in half the states

By KEVIN McGILL and DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appeals court panel has lifted a nationwide ban against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for health workers, creating the potential for patchwork enforcement across the country. Wednesday’s decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals keeps an injunction in place only for 14 states that sued in its circuit. A separate preliminary injunction pending before the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals applies to 10 additional states. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid had previously said it would not enforce the vaccine rule while injunctions were in place.