Dave Yost, others sue to stop vaccine mandate

Argue fed agency lacks authority to implement rules

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined attorneys general from six other states to file a lawsuit against the federal government seeking to stop a national COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

The federal lawsuit, filed Friday, contends the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration lacks the authority to require those working at companies with at least 100 employees to be vaccinated fully against COVID-19 by Jan. 4 or be required to be tested weekly.

"A nationwide vaccine mandate that has nothing to do with workplace risk is a dangerous and unlawful use of executive power," Yost, a Republican, said. "Congress has not given the president the power to make personal health care decisions for all Americans who just so happen to work at a company with at least 100 employees."

The other attorneys general in the lawsuit also are Republicans and represent Kentucky, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, announced Thursday the mandate would take effect Jan. 4. He first had discussed it in September.

"While I would have preferred that requirements not become necessary, too many people remain unvaccinated for us to get out of this pandemic for good," Biden said Thursday. "So I instituted requirements, and they are working."

In the Friday lawsuit from the attorneys general, it was argued the power to issue emergency temporary standards was given to OSHA by Congress to protect employees from "grave" dangers posed by exposure to harmful substances and toxins.

The lawsuit states "COVID-19 certainly does not fit the statutory test" for being a grave danger. "The likelihood of dying from COVID-19, for a fully vaccinated person of any age, is 1 in 137,698, about equal to the risk of dying from a lightning strike, one in 138,849."

Also, the death rate for unvaccinated people at least 16 years of age who contract COVID-19 is 0.6 percent, according to the lawsuit.

The attorneys general acknowledge "COVID-19 is dangerous to the unvaccinated. That is why the states urge their citizens to get a vaccine. But the question here is not whether COVID-19 is dangerous. It is whether it presents a 'grave' danger."

The lawsuit states workers who don't get vaccinated "expose themselves to a risk that, while needless, is hardly 'grave' in any ordinary sense of the word."

It read: "In addition to being illegal, the vaccine mandate will have disastrous consequences. Without a stay, employers already barely scraping by after a pandemic-caused recession will be forced to pay massive fines or lay off unvaccinated workers -- some of whom will leave on their own to take jobs with smaller companies."

The lawsuit requests a ruling for a stay on the mandate no later than next Friday.

"This will allow the states to seek immediate relief at the Supreme Court before the compliance dates should this court deny relief," it reads.

The conservative Buckeye Institute, an Ohio think tank, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration over the vaccine mandate. On Friday, it filed a motion for an emergency stay to have a federal court immediately stop the mandate.

Also, Yost joined the attorneys general in Kentucky and Tennessee as well as the prosecutor and sheriff in Geauga County and the Seneca County sheriff in filing a lawsuit Thursday against the federal government to block a vaccine mandate for employees of federal contractors, such as deputies at county jails that house U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.

Meanwhile, the Trumbull County Combined Health District will hold a COVID-19 vaccination clinic 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Eastwood Mall in Niles. Walk-ins are welcome.

It also will hold a pediatric vaccination clinic 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday at its office, 176 Chestnut Ave. NE, Warren.