You asked and we have answers on new developments in efforts to fight vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.
The questions from you at home came after news a federal judge in Louisiana put a vaccine mandate on hold, impacting healthcare workers around the country.
The question our Albany viewers wanted to know, how does this impact the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers here in New York State?
The federal policy that's been put on hold stipulates that any employee of a facility that participates in Medicaid or Medicare must be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022, with no testing option available.
WRGB’s Anne McCloy emailed the New York State Department of Health for answers Wednesday to find out how this might impact New Yorkers. The NYSDOH wrote in a statement, “The federal judge's recent ruling is addressed to federal regulations and has no impact on the New York State regulations,” meaning the recent NYSDOH move to eliminate religious exemptions to the state vaccine mandate still stands. Because of that, the decision to suspend or terminate those unvaccinated workers who had been seeking exemptions is upheld.
But things could change, because the court battle challenging New York State's mandate is still ongoing. NYSDOH offered this update on the court battle.
"In the case pertaining to the state regulation, two emergency applications for emergency stays were filed by the plaintiffs with the Supreme Court from the Second Circuit's decision and are both still pending."
If healthcare workers seeking religious exemptions win emergency stays, New York’s State’s mandate could be put on pause pending a resolution to the litigation surrounding it.
However a rep from Gov. Hochul's office tells us Hochul is confident the stays will not be granted and that she will win this court battle. The rep also noted that because many of the unvaccinated workers seeking exemptions are already suspended or fired it would likely be difficult for them to go back to work in the case the court ruled in their favor.
We will continue to follow any new developments.