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Many citizens and personalities who have refused to get vaccinated for a number of reasons have decried US President Joe Biden’s announcement to have private businesses enforce vaccine mandates for their employees. Following the announcement of the mandate, a federal court has blocked the implementation of the policy aimed at private businesses.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit blocked the federal mandate that Biden announced targeting private businesses to get more Americans to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. The conservative, New Orleans-based court looked into the petition by private companies, religious groups, and Republican states -- Texas, Louisiana, Utah, South Carolina, and Mississippi -- and ruled that the petitioners have a reason to believe that there may be “statutory and constitutional issues” regarding the mandate.
The court has given the US government to reply to the motion for a permanent injunction this week.
58% of the total US population was vaccinated as of early November, up by half in August when the mandates were first being announced. Last Thursday, Biden set a January 4, 2022 deadline for private companies with a large number of employees to be fully vaccinated. The Biden administration said the mandate would affect two-thirds of the country’s workforce.
Several major employers who have announced vaccine mandates have reported impressive results in their companies. United Airlines, which has 67,000 employees, mandated getting vaccinated or risking getting terminated from the job. Following the recent mandate, only 2,000 refused to comply.
The New York Times reported that major meatpacking company Tyson Foods announced that all of its employees must be vaccinated. 96% complied with the mandate. The US military is already 95% vaccinated in all of its branches.
In other related news, Biden criticized the recent elections in Nicaragua, where incumbent Daniel Ortega won re-election after his competitors were thrown out, according to WION News. This comes as reports of Ortega’s administration rigging the election before the day itself through imprisoning 39 opposition activists in recent months.
Seven presidential candidates were also imprisoned, as well as “blocked political groups” in part of the administration’s effort to rig the outcome of the election.
“What Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife Vice President Rosario Murillo orchestrated today was a pantomime election that was neither free or fair, and most certainly not democratic,” said Biden in a statement.
