Vaccine Mandate Halt Seen Complicating Future Pandemic Fights (1)

The federal government’s ability to stop the spread of a whole host of infectious diseases in health facilities could be threatened if the reasoning behind a federal court’s decision to block President Joe Biden‘s vaccine mandate for health-care workers is adopted by other courts, some legal scholars say.

These scholars say the government has long used Medicare and Medicaid funding to set safety standards that health facilities must follow. But a federal court judge in Missouri undermined that power when it said the agency needs Congress’s permission before it can require Covid-19 vaccines, they say.

“The idea that CMS ...