The Biden administration’s vaccine mandate contains a provision that requires the unvaccinated to wear masks at all times when indoors or when driving inside a vehicle with a co-worker for work-related purposes, Summit News reported.
Phil Kerpen, the president of American Commitment and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, wrote on Twitter that the Biden administration plans to use the mask mandate as “punishment.”
He said that the Biden administration previously pushed masks for “source control,” or to prevent infected droplets from spreading, but will now use “masks as punishment and social ostracism for choosing not to get a vaccine.”
“Biden’s OSHA mandate is even worse than previously reported,” Kerpen concluded.
There is no evidence that COVID-19 shots prevent the disease’s spread, so the Biden administration lacks a scientific basis for discrimination about mandatory masks.
President Joe Biden ordered the vaccine mandate through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which issued an emergency temporary standard.
That standard was originally slated to take effect Dec. 8, but has been bumped to Jan. 4. The Biden administration insisted the delay was needed “to streamline implementation and make it easier for business and employees to comply with the requirements,” according to CNN.
A more likely reason was the thunderous pushback from employers who are concerned that, ahead of the holiday season, the burdensome mandate would create an exodus of workers, stretch supply lines even thinner, and lead to increased prices for consumers, reported Hot Air.
Congress has not passed a law to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations at work, and so Biden’s order lacks a legal basis. The mandate has already drawn heavy criticism from Senate Republicans, who vowed to challenge and nullify the onerous measure.
In the emergency temporary standard, OSHA said “many employees in the U.S. who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 face grave danger from exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace.”
Under the order, employers must force unvaccinated employees to be “tested for COVID-19 at least weekly.”
The order also prevents employers from prohibiting employees from wearing masks.
“Employers must not prevent any employee, regardless of vaccination status, from voluntarily wearing a face covering unless it creates a serious workplace hazard,” OSHA stated.
Employers no longer have the right to cultivate a work environment in which employees and customers can see the human face without fear.
States like Florida want to ban mandatory vaccine mandates, but OSHA’s order claims that state and local governments cannot protect their citizens from the federal government.
“Both OSHA and CMS are making clear that their new rules preempt any inconsistent state or local laws, including laws that ban or limit an employer’s authority to require vaccination, masks, or testing,” the emergency temporary standard claimed.
