Florida Health Agency Presses Biden Admin to Drop Healthcare Worker Vaccine Mandate After POTUS Gets COVID

The state of Florida reached out to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Monday, asking the agency to withdraw its “arbitrary” COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.

Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) Simone Marstiller wrote to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, slamming the Biden administration for placing Florida’s healthcare system “at risk of collapse” even though vaccination “does not prevent transmission or symptomatic disease.” Marstiller also directed the letter to President Joe Biden and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra

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“Last week, President Biden announced that he contracted COVID-19 after electing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, including being ‘double vaccinated, double boosted.’ The President’s diagnosis confirms the science: although the COVID-19 vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization, it does not prevent transmission or symptomatic disease,” Marstiller wrote.

“In fact, based on published reports by the U.K. Government, the risk reduction attributed to the vaccine significantly decreases within two months or receiving a booster. Despite these incontrovertible facts, your agency continues to enforce its arbitrary “emergency” rule mandating that health care workers be vaccinated for COVID-19 or lose their jobs,” she continued. 

Florida notably dropped its legal challenge against the CMS mandate in January after the Supreme Court decided to uphold the rule. The CMS mandate requires healthcare workers at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid to be fully vaccinated and applies to more than 17 million workers at approximately 76,000 healthcare facilities nationwide at hospitals and long-term care facilities. 

Hospitals across the country are facing shortages as a result of worker burnout, poor pay, layoffs and resignations, many of which can likely be attributed to the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. A Morning Consult poll in 2021 addressed the trend, finding that nearly 1 in 5 healthcare workers quit their jobs during the pandemic. In May of 2022, the Florida Hospital Association estimated “that 70 percent of Florida hospitals are facing critical staffing shortages and the state will be short 60,000 nurses by 2035,” Politico reported.

Marstiller added the agency’s enforcement of the mandate, combined with “all-time high” inflation is impacting the ability of health care providers to “recruit and retain workers, keep health care costs low, and maintain sufficient resources to serve individual care.”

“While CMS continues to put our health care system at risk of collapse, the State of Florida continues to support our workforce, both the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida law prohibits employers from imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates, ensuring that no Florida must choose between keeping their job or receiving a forced injection,” she wrote. 

Marstiller mentioned that her agency notified CMS in January that it would not survey for compliance with the “emergency rule.” As a result, CMS has reportedly “assessed a monetary penalty and has now had to hire contracted staff to help enforce this unfounded mandate in the Sunshine State.”

“That hardly seems like a good use of taxpayer dollars considering what we know to be true. COVID-19 vaccines do not protect anyone from contracting or transmitting the virus,” she continued. 

Marstiller instead called on CMS and HHS to focus on whole person health, “like combating the opioid epidemic, reducing the number of Americans struggling with obesity, and finding a cure for cancer.”

“The President said he is ‘getting a lot of work done [and is] going to continue to get it done.’ While he is able to work, the policies of his Administration prevent this for many Americans, including health care workers subject to your agency’s arbitrary ’emergency’ rule. It is time to withdraw this rule and get America back to work,” she concluded. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has previously spoken out about the CMS mandate, calling it “absolutely insane, especially given the ineffectiveness, you know, of these shots to actually stop transmission between individuals.” The leader of the Sunshine State has also accused the federal government of acting like a “state police power” by designing vaccine mandates to run around the Constitutional structure.