NPA petitions U.S. Court of Appeals to declare OSHA vaccine mandates unlawful

Photo © iStockphoto.com/ Kuzma

The Natural Products Association (NPA; Washington, D.C.) is petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals to declare the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate unlawful. The Emergency Temporary Standard for COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing (“ETS”) issued by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (“OSHA”) requires all employers with more than 100 employees to mandate that their workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or to require weekly testing and masking of unvaccinated employees. NPA believes the mandate will have an immediate adverse impact on employers, including those in the natural products industry.

“We are sounding the alarm today because we have serious concerns this extreme regulation imposes an unrealistic timeline and significant economic burden on businesses across the United States facing historic labor challenges,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO of NPA, in a press release. “Vaccine and testing mandates will only slow delivery times and drive-up costs for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers and damage the ability to keep products on store shelves that consumers have relied on to stay healthy for the past 20 months.”

“We don’t need the ETS grinch during the holidays when the country is already plagued by concerns of rising inflation and product availability,” added Fabricant. “We are asking the Court to declare this mandate unlawful because we believe it exceeds the government’s authority, is unconstitutional, is unsupported by substantial evidence, and improperly preempts state law. We are hopeful that cooler heads will prevail so we can have a real debate on the best course of action.”

NPA’s petition can be viewed here.