The Justice Department published an opinion on Monday arguing that coronavirus vaccine mandates are legal even though the vaccines have only been approved for emergency use.
As several blue states and cities begin imposing vaccine mandates on various industries, such as the healthcare industry, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel said the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency approval of the vaccines “does not prohibit public or private entities from imposing vaccination requirements for vaccines.”
None of the experimental vaccine shots have been granted full FDA approval, and it is not clear when this approval will be granted.
Oddly, the memo undermined the Biden administration’s recent overtures toward government-imposed censorship of COVID skepticism and dissent—part of the Left’s propagandist effort to label inconvenient facts as “disinformation.”
The DOJ maintained that citizens have a right to be “informed” of facts about the vaccines’ risks and benefits, including “the option to accept or refuse administration of the product.”
But ultimately, it asserted, both private businesses and government entities are allowed to require employees to get the shot.
Following revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, leftists pounced to reimpose mask mandates, which had been abandoned in May as Biden’s numbers began to tank over higher-than-projected jobless claims.
Meanwhile, with the DOJ’s blessing, the Department of Veteran Affairs became the first federal agency to mandate the vaccines for employees.
“We’re mandating vaccines for Title 38 employees because it’s the best way to keep veterans safe, especially as the delta variant spreads across the country,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement.
“Whenever a Veteran or VA employee sets foot in a VA facility, they deserve to know that we have done everything in our power to protect them from COVID-19,” he added. “With this mandate, we can once again make—and keep—that fundamental promise.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has also mandated that all city workers be vaccinated or subject themselves to weekly testing.
“September is the pivot point of the recovery,” de Blasio said on Monday. “And so, on Sept. 13, the first day of school, every single city employee will be expected to be either vaccinated or be tested weekly.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom similarly announced that all state government employees and healthcare workers will be required to show proof of vaccination or face weekly testing, adding he plans to implement “the strongest state vaccine verification system in the U.S.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
