Augusta University to require vaccination despite role in federal vaccine suit

While the state of Georgia is the lead defendant in a lawsuit filed Friday against President Biden and the government over the vaccine mandate for federal contractors, Augusta University has notified staff they will need to comply.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Augusta Friday on behalf of Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia seeking an injunction to stop compliance with President Biden’s Sept. 9 executive order that all federal contract employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall reassigned the case from himself to U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker who presides in Savannah.

President Biden's executive order and subsequent directions from federal agencies through the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, require federal contract employees to be fully vaccinated by the Dec. 8.

Federal employees were already under a vaccine mandate before the executive order.

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“For state agencies that work on federal contracts, this situation is untenable,” according to the lawsuit filed by the Georgia attorney general and by former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court Harold Melton who returned to private practice earlier this year. The lawsuit contends mandate puts billions of dollars in federal contracts in peril and many state agencies are in danger of losing funding.

Augusta University has 45 federal contracts and agreements, many concerning university healthcare research for the Veterans Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, that will directly affect over 200 employees. The budget for these contracts is $17.1 million in 2021, according to the lawsuit.

Through its in-house publication, the JagWire, the university notified employees Oct. 26 about the looming deadline for all employees working on the contracts, and possibly for employees providing support services to those employees and employees who share workspace with employees working on contracts. The AU COVID-19 Transition Committee is working on the implementation guidelines.

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The federal lawsuit filed by Georgia and other states is seeking a court order to void Biden’s executive order, describing it as unprecedented and an unconstitutional use of presidential powers that will create havoc for the states.

The federal contracts could be jeopardized because of a loss of employees, the lawsuit contends. Nine of 10 employers in the suit fear significant workforce reductions with vaccine mandates, and a recent survey of unvaccinated workers show 70 percent would quit before becoming vaccinated, the lawsuit contends.

The money involved in the federal contracts represent considerable portions of states’ budgets for essential research, education and other necessary programs, the lawsuit continues. It seeks an injunction to stop the executive order’s enforcement because it threatens immediate and irreparable harm.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed challenging vaccine mandates, including one by a minority of employees at SRS. So far, the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to intervene in the litigations.