Missouri Chamber of Commerce says federal vaccine mandate is a "mandate against employers"

COLUMBIA - Following President Joe Biden's announcement of federal vaccine and testing requirements, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce believes it is the wrong approach for business. 

This mandate will affect nearly 100 million people, with as many as 80 million workers in private sector businesses, according to the White House; and over 3,700 Missouri businesses, according to the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. 

It requires all federal workers and contractors be vaccinated, and all large companies require either employee vaccination or weekly COVID-19 testing. Large companies are defined as employers with 100 for more employees. 

The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will develop an emergency rule and issue a standard to introduce the requirement.

However there is no date to when this rule will begin.

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which represents more than 75,000 employers, had some questions regarding the mandate. 

President and CEO Daniel P. Mehan said the Chamber understands the executive order "very clearly as a mandate against employers." Mehan emphasized the importance of positive reinforcement and said Biden's order will divide the country.

"It’s unfortunate that this new federal policy will likely further divide public sentiment around COVID-19 vaccination," Mehan said.

Mehan said they don't think that federal, state or local governments should be able to tell employers how to run their business. Instead, Mehan believes positive incentives such as their "COVID Stops Here" campaign can encourage employees to receive their vaccine. 

"In contrast with Biden Administration’s approach, we believe the federal government should instead cooperate with the employer community to encourage vaccination and support employers that exercise their legal right to require vaccination," Mehan said.

KOMU 8 also wanted to find out the logistics of the order and how it may affect businesses, health departments and hospitals. 

"We're just not going to know a whole lot until we actually see the regulations come from the Department of Labor as to what the requirements are. Right now we don't have any tests that we could hand out or anything like that," Scott Clardy, assistant director of the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services, said.

Jay MacLellan, Director of Public Relations for Shelter Insurance reiterated this. 

"We are waiting to review the rules from Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Department of Labor," he said. 

If the new rule would require county health departments to help supply COVID-19 tests Clardy says he's not sure where those tests would come from.

"You know, if that's something that they would want us to do, I would hope that would come with either them supplying the tests directly to us or providing funding where we can purchase the test. Again, I just don't know," Clardy said. 

If businesses decide to go with the weekly testing option, that means that the demand for testing will increase. 

KOMU recently reported that the testing demand at MU Urgent Care has more than doubled in volume in the past four to six weeks. MU Health Care's Eric Maze said it's too soon to speculate on potential impacts on testing sites.