EXPLAINER: Must employers follow Biden's vaccine mandates?

Millions of health care workers across the U.S. were supposed to have their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by this coming Monday under a mandate from President Joe Biden's administration

Millions of health care workers across the U.S. were supposed to have their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by this coming Monday under a mandate issued by President Joe Biden's administration. Thanks to legal challenges, they won't have to worry about it, at least for now.

Same goes for a Jan. 4 deadline set by the administration for businesses with at least 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly for the virus.

Judges responding to lawsuits brought by Republican-led states, businesses and other opponents have blocked some of Biden's most sweeping initiatives intended to drive up vaccination rates. Numerous other legal challenges are pending, contesting the Democratic president's vaccine requirements for federal employees and contractors and members of the military, as well as mask requirements for people using public transportation.

More than four-fifths of adults nationwide already have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But Biden contends his various workforce vaccine mandates are an important step in curtailing the virus, which has killed more than 780,000 people in the U.S.