EVANSVILLE – Just what effect, if any, the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate will have on Evansville city employees is still up in the air.
President Joe Biden unveiled an executive order Thursday requiring employers with 100 or more workers to either mandate the vaccine or test non-inoculated workers every week, although there would still be religious and health exemptions. The rule would be enforced by the Department of Labor.
The city of Evansville employs almost 2,000 people. But on Friday, city attorney Marco DeLucio said officials are 'reviewing' whether the proposal pertains to them. If a change does come, it likely won’t happen anytime soon.
'(We) believe there will be various challenges to the proposed rule,' he said, 'which may mean implementation of the rule as to the city, if at all, may be well into the future.'
Sen. Todd Young expressed similar uncertainty Friday after speaking to a small group of Evansville law enforcement officers at Fraternal Order of Police headquarters.
During a short, wide-ranging conversation, Young said the executive order was 'probably unconstitutional.' Several FOP members harshly criticized the rule as well.
Young also confirmed he was vaccinated. 'I got it the first day I could,' he said.
He told the Courier & Press he wasn’t sure if the executive order would apply to law enforcement.
'I think we’re trying to figure out how it’s going to be implemented,' he said. 'It’s unclear whether there will be a stay put on that order by a federal court because of its dubious constitutionality.'
Some aspects of the mandate are more certain . According to the Biden administration, it would apply to all federal workers and contractors, with a few exceptions. The roughly 17 million healthcare workers at facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid payments would fall under the rule as well, as would the more than 300,000 employees of the federal Head Start early childhood education program.
As for public schools, Biden urged governors to set vaccine mandates at the statewide level. Gov. Eric Holcomb, however, quickly criticized Biden’s executive order, calling it a 'bridge too far.'
The delta variant has caused a massive surge in COVID infections and deaths in the Evansville area and all across the country in the last few months. In his speech Thursday, Biden urged all eligible Americans to get vaccinated and help squelch the pandemic.
'Please do the right thing,' he said. 'But don’t just take it from me. Listen to the voices of unvaccinated Americans who are lying in hospital beds, taking their final breath, saying, ‘if only I had gotten vaccinated.’'
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