A Ping-Pong Ball Lottery Could Jeopardize Biden's Vaccine Mandate
The Biden Administration's employee vaccine mandate has been dealt a blow—by a peculiar ping-pong ball lottery.
In early November, the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency rule for employers with 100 or more workers, affecting around 84 million workers nationwide. Under the mandate, businesses would have until Jan. 4 to ensure all workers were fully vaccinated; those who don't get their shots would need to be tested weekly and comply with mandatory masking.
As my colleague Abigail Abrams reports, OSHA's rule was almost immediately challenged—nearly three dozen lawsuits have been filed so far by Republican-led states, as well as companies, business groups, unions and religious organizations. Most argued that the government was overstepping its authority.
Under the lottery—which Abigail describes as like "the NBA draft, only required by federal law"—all the lawsuits were consolidated and will be heard by the Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Why? A Washington, D.C. clerk randomly pulled a ping-pong ball out of a drum to determine where the case would be heard.
The lottery result is bad news for the Biden Administration, given that a majority of the Sixth Circuit's justices were appointed by Republican presidents. Legal experts predict the dispute could end up at the Supreme Court, which has a six-to-three conservative majority. As Abigail writes, "If the courts ultimately agree with the conservative challengers and strike down the vaccine requirement, it would amount to a significant blow to the Biden Administration's COVID-19 response, experts say. Successfully blocking the vaccine mandate would likely encourage conservatives to challenge more federal agency actions under Biden for the remainder of his term."
More than 556 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this morning, of which more than 443.3 million doses have been administered, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 58.9% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
More than 254.3 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 5.1 million people have died. On Nov. 16, there were 512,104 new cases and 7,489 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 4 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 47.3 million coronavirus cases as of 12 a.m. E.T. today. More than 765,800 people have died. On Nov. 16, there were 87,481 new cases and 1,448 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Nov. 17, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The U.S. will spend billions to increase COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing, the New York Timesreports. The goal is to produce at least 1 billion doses a year, beginning in the second half of 2022, to lift the global supply, especially in poorer nations. "This is about assuring expanded capacity against COVID variants and also preparing for the next pandemic," Dr. David Kessler, who oversees vaccine distribution for the Biden Administration, told the Times.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could authorize Pfizer-BioNTech boosters for all adults on Friday, the Associated Press reports. The shots could then be available nationwide as early as this weekend. While some cities and states—such as California, New Mexico and West Virginia—are already allowing all adults to get a Pfizer booster shot, that's not yet official policy across the U.S.
U.S. overdose deaths topped 100,000 in one year—a record milestone that officials say is the result of the pandemic plus a more dangerous drug supply. The figure represents a nearly 30% increase compared to the previous year. The increase is "devastating," Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University expert on drug abuse issues, told the AP. "It's a magnitude of overdose death that we haven't seen in this country."
A new ad campaign that launched yesterday features the stories of three people in their twenties who are battling Long COVID—part of an effort to reach the unvaccinated. Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit headed by Tom Frieden, the former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is behind the powerful campaign. One young woman who's featured says that following her infection, she can no longer remember her first date with her boyfriend, even after examining photos from the time.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Angela Haupt and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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