A federal district judge issued an injunction temporarily halting Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate for healthcare workers affiliated with Medicare and Medicaid. The Missouri district judge, who is a 2019 Donald Trump appointee, explained that his decision would “ensure that federal agencies do not extend their power beyond the express delegation from Congress.”

The temporary injunction applies to Missouri, which brought the lawsuit, and nine other states that joined — Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

Meanwhile, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is pulling back on implementing penalties against federal workers who have not yet complied with Biden’s vaccine mandate deadline until after the holidays. The OMB office tried to brush off the massive cave by conflating the mandate with a “goal,” saying: “The Federal employee vaccination requirement is to protect Federal workers, not to punish them. Last week’s deadline was not an endpoint or a cliff. We are continuing to see more and more Federal employees getting their shots.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki similarly played off the backtracking on enforcement as nothing to see here, stating, “Nothing has changed on our deadline or our approach to the federal employee vaccine requirement.”

But that was clearly not the take from American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley. “The administration has done the right thing by listening to federal workers, taking their concerns seriously, and giving those who haven’t yet gotten vaccinated some peace of mind this holiday season,” he responded. “While we applaud the policy that defers suspensions and removals, we continue to encourage all our members who are able to obtain one of the FDA-approved anti-COVID vaccines as soon as they possibly can.”

The real question is whether the Biden administration sees the writing on the wall with this vaccine mandate, both legally and with public opinion. Furthermore, if the Biden administration did indeed follow through on its vaccine deadline, even with 92% of federal workers vaccinated, the impact of suspending or firing 8% of the federal workforce would have a significant negative impact on the workings of government, resulting in more negative numbers for Biden and only serving to further highlight his abysmal policies that are exacerbating the supply chain issues and rising inflation.

Americans want to be done with the COVID hysteria, and Biden’s foolish vaccine mandate has only politicized the issue and created more division. Freedom-loving Americans are simply not keen on authoritarian diktats, and it’s showing in Biden’s continued negative popularity slide.