US Supreme Court denies request to block New York’s vaccination mandate for healthcare workers

The US Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to New York’s Covid vaccination mandate for healthcare workers, which was brought by two groups.

The court announced in a ruling on Monday afternoon that it supported the mandate, refusing a request brought by a group of Christian doctors and nurses who complained of a “medical dictatorship”.

A second challenge had been made by an anti-vaccine organisation, with both groups asking for an emergency injunction for religious exemptions from the mandate.

Six of the court’s justices ruled to reject the two requests.

Three conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito. and Neil M Gorsuch – dissented, saying they would grant an injunction.

Justice Gorsuch said the mandate seemed based “on nothing more than fear and anger at those who harbour unpopular religious beliefs”, and admonished his colleagues for not protecting the challengers.

Both groups had claimed that New York’s mandate violated the US Constitution’s First Amendment prohibition on religious discrimination.

That is despite healthcare workers already being expected to be immunised against diseases such as measles and rubella, and which has seen no such challenges.

New York governor Kathy Hochul said the mandate was “critical to keeping New Yorkers safe”, and according to Politico, that it was the state’s “greatest responsibility is to protect our most vulnerable.”

It comes amid a rise in Covid infections across the US and the circulation of a new variant of concern, called omicron.

A challenge to a vaccine mandate for health care workers which was recently brought against Maine was also denied by the Supreme Court.

Additional reporting by Reuters.