On January 13, 2022, in a 5-4 decision in Biden v. Missouri, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed 2 lower court decisions enjoining the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) vaccine mandate. The mandate, now in effect, requires all facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid to ensure that their staff is vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) absent medical and religious exemptions. 1The injunction that the Supreme Court dissolved would have blocked the enforcement of the mandate in a total of 24 states.1
The Supreme Court made it plain that the CMS vaccine mandate is “consistent with the fundamental [Hippocratic] principle of the medical profession: first, do no harm.” 1
A White House statement issued in the wake of the Supreme Court decision captured the same spirit in stating that the mandate “will save lives: the lives of the patients who seek care in medical facilities, as well as the lives of doctors, nurses, and others who work there.” 2 To read this article in its entirety please visit our website.
“The CMS Vaccine Mandate at the Supreme Court: A Hippocratic Imperative” originally appeared in the September 2022 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
