Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra on Monday issued a grave warning if the U.S. Supreme Court were to strike down the Biden administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) mandate on COVID-19 vaccination for employers with 100 or more employees.
The court began hearing oral arguments on two separate legal challenges this week.
Becerra told “CNN Newsroom” that “people will die” if the mandate gets struck down. He added that would be on the justices’ “conscience.”
“[H]opefully the plan is that the Supreme Court will recognize that the federal government, the Biden administration has the authority to require these vaccines,” Becerra said. “We know they work. They save lives. We’ve proven it. Here at HHS, with 88,000 workers, nearly 100% of our workers are vaccinated already.”
Host Victor Blackwell asked, “And if they don’t?”
“And if they don’t, well, I think that will be on their conscience,” Becerra replied. “I think there’s some clear authority, legal authority, for us to move forward as we have proposed — both for the private sector workforce and for the health care workforce. And we understand that if we don’t get people vaccinated and covered this way, people will die, and if you’re a health care worker, for sure.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent