CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Friday wrote a letter in support of a recent petition from 22 states for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services to repeal an interim rule mandating health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment.
“Every American has a right to work and mandates like this do nothing but impede that right,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “Placing restrictions on an individual’s right to make informed decisions about whether to vaccinate for COVID-19 infringes upon their liberties and religious beliefs.”
“The rule is inconsistent with America’s liberty tradition and medical ethics.”
The letter was addressed to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
CMS’s interim rule requires “participating health care facilities to develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that all staff are fully vaccinated for COVID-19.” It regulates more than 10 million health care workers and suppliers. Some 2.4 million of those were unvaccinated when the rule was issued, according to CMS estimates.
“Such mandates threaten to further burden the health care sector and patient well-being in West Virginia, where a large percentage of nursing home and other long-term care facilities are already facing worker shortages,” Attorney General Morrisey said.