The Surgeon General for the United States, Vivek Murthy, recently told the co-anchor of This Week, Martha Raddatz, about his views with the SCOTUS. In fact, he was quite frank about how the decision of the Supreme Court to block the vaccine-or-test requirement of the Biden administration for large private businesses was simply a setback for public health.
He stated that the news about the workplace requirement being blocked was quite disappointing, for what these requirements were in place was not just for the protection of the community at large, but also making sure that the workplaces were safer for workers as well as for consumers.
Vivek Murthy Believes in the Importance of the Vaccine Mandate
Raddatz also reminded Vivek Murthy that before the surge of the Omicron variant, he had stated on This Week that the mandate was absolutely appropriate and necessary. When she pressed him for a Plan B, he stated that there is nothing that would prevent workplaces from voluntarily putting reasonable requirements in place for everyone to co-exist safely.
Vivek Murthy went on to add that there have already been several companies that have done so. A third of the Fortune 100 companies have put the mandate in place, and many more on the fringes have gone through, so the administration is definitely going to encourage companies to put these requirements in place voluntarily. Unfortunately, several large companies have also changed their plans based on the decision of the Supreme Court.
The comments from Vivek Murthy come at the same time that the Joe Biden administration continues to increase its efforts to stop the spread of the Omicron variant- which is highly transmissible. The officials in the White House have stated that the administration will be launching a new website on Wednesday which would bring in free at-home rapid COVID tests.
