Vaccine-to-Work Mandate Hangs on if Covid’s Still ‘Grave Danger’

The Biden administration’s ability to enforce its emergency Covid-19 shot-or-test workplace mandate hinges on convincing courts that despite rising immunization rates the virus still poses a “grave danger” to employees.

“I think they have an uphill battle to defend the grave danger,” said Todd Logsdon, co-chair of Fisher Phillips LLP’s workplace safety group.

An ordinary OSHA rulemaking requires the agency to prove a hazard poses a “significant risk” to workers; an emergency rulemaking must pass the higher “grave danger” standard.

That standard is defined by the law that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which in two months ...