Because of the ongoing supply chain crisis and the looming holiday season, the National Retail Federation, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the American Trucking Associations have sued the Biden administration over COVID-19 vaccine mandates, which would require businesses with 100 or more employees to have staff fully vaccinated by Jan 4.
Requiring the vaccines, and any accompanying loss of workers over the mandates, would cause irreparable harm in an "already fragile supply chains and labor markets," the groups countered in a lawsuit.
The case was filed in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which last week paused the mandates after a suit was brought by the Republican attorneys general of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Utah, as well as several private companies.
"We have consistently and repeatedly communicated our concerns about the practical challenges of meeting those arbitrary targets," National Retail Federation President Matthew Shay said in a statement Tuesday. "However, it appears that our only remaining course of action is to petition for judicial relief."
Shay's organization represents some of the country's biggest retailers, including Target and Walmart.
In related news, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said yesterday that less than 1% of the city's workforce is on unpaid leave for failing to comply with the city's vaccine mandate, Bloomberg reports.
FDA recalls COVID tests
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday announced a recall of about 2 million at-home COVID-19 tests made by the Australian company Ellume, NPR reports.
The agency says the kits may produce false-positives due to a manufacturing defect. So far, the FDA has been notified of 35 false positives from the tests.
Yesterday, the Biden administrations said it will spend $650 million to bolster domestic manufacturing of COVID-19 tests ahead of an expected rise in demand, according to Politico. The manufacturing will support what the administration predicts will be a sharp increase in demand in schools and workplaces.
New Mexico's ICU bed shortage
Hospitals in New Mexico had just eight ICU beds available Wednesday as the state grapples with a surge in coronavirus cases, the Associated Press reports. Hospitals in northwest New Mexico have invoked crisis standards of care.
The United States reported 95,929 new COVID-19 cases yesterday and 1,625 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracker. The 7-day average of new daily cases is 76,224, with 1,265 deaths, according to the Washington Post tracker, a slight uptick from the previous 2 weeks.
