Surgeon General Murthy: COVID-19 is 'what's really hurting the economy'

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‘The Five’ slam the ‘authoritarianism’ of vaccine mandates

The panelists argue cancellations and delays crippling airlines are a result of employees standing up for their rights on vaccine mandates.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has defended the Biden administration’s workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandate by insisting that it is the virus that is hurting the economy over any other factor. 

The Biden administration introduced a vaccine mandate for any business with 100 employees or more. The mandate has already met significant opposition, with lawsuits filed from at least 27 states. 

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At least one of the lawsuits claims that the mandate will cause injuries and hardship to working families as well as inflict economic disruption at all levels of labor and distribution. 

Murthy, however, claimed that workers have told him "time and time again" that what’s "really" hurting the economy is the virus itself. 

"Millions of workers have gotten sick because of COVID, and unpredictably been pulled out of work," Murthy said on ABC’s "This Week." "Millions more have had to be quarantined and think of how disruptive that's been to businesses."

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"Just keep this in mind: These are not new," he continued. "In addition to having done this historically, and in modern times, we have required vaccines for the military, we've required vaccines in hospital systems, the ones that I worked in as well."

The OSHA vaccine mandate would take effect Jan. 4. 

LONGWOOD, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES - 2021/08/09: A nurse gives a girl a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Lyman High School in Longwood on the day before classes begin for the 2021-22 school year. Seminole County Public Schools have implemented a face covering/mask mandate for students for 30 days unless a parent chooses to opt out of the requirement. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Murthy again cited the 75,000 cases in the U.S. every day, which in fact refers to the seven-day rolling average, which currently sits at 73,145 with 31,923 new cases reported Nov. 6, according to data from The New York Times. 

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Should the legal challenges fail, the administration may consider extending the mandate to smaller companies despite arguments that the pandemic will effectively be "over" by the time these mandates go into effect: Just short of 68% of American residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine, with 59% of the population fully vaccinated. 

"Certainly, nothing is off the table," Murthy said in response to a question about extending the mandate’s scope. "The focus is implementing the current rule that OSHA put out, and this emphasizes what we put out in a report recently – that average businesses that put these requirements in place see a 20% vaccination rate increase." 

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Murthy argued that such mandates "are a key pathway out of the pandemic."

He also said he was "cautiously optimistic," but that the nation "can’t take our foot off the accelerator until we’re at the finish line."