Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said President Joe Biden’s newly announced coronavirus vaccine mandates will be a policy that affects the fall of 2022.
According to Gottlieb, the process to issue the rules and guidelines and the ensuing challenges in court means the mandate is “probably something for the fall of 2022 work season.”
“I think that the other measures that they took, certainly the issues with … the mandates related to the federal workforce and even the mandates on health care workers probably fall more squarely in the purview of what the federal government can do,” Gottlieb outlined. “I think the controversial part of this, and the part that’s going to get challenged, is the mandate on businesses with 100 or more employees. So, let’s unpack that. They have to go through a rule-making process. OSHA has to issue a rule. Even if they don’t direct a final rule, assuming OSHA hasn’t started doing that yet, and I suspect they haven’t. The White House probably announced this ahead of any rulemaking because they wouldn’t have wanted it to leak. That’s going to be a weeks-long process, and perhaps a month-long process or longer.”
He continued, “It’s probably going get challenged in court. End even if you’re able to implement the rule, they’re going to have to issue guidance on how businesses implement that and give some kind of grace period to get that into effect,” he added. “So, best case, as a practical measure, this is probably going to be a tool or policy that affects the fall of 2022 — certainly not going to be implemented in time for this Delta wave. By the summertime, I believe prevalence is going to decline, so we’re not really going to be reaching for a mandate. So, this is probably something for the fall of 2022 work season.”
Gottlieb went on to predict the Biden vaccine mandate won’t help get the country over a 90% vaccination rate.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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