In an apparent response to a federal appeals court placing a stay on President Biden’s vaccine mandate on large corporations, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he wouldn’t pursue additional mandates. WR issued a letter to Inslee on Nov 2 urging the Governor to refrain from deviating from OSHA’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) relating to President Biden’s vaccine mandate directives on companies employing over 100 employees. WR’s letter cited a report from Washington State’s own Department of Health to support its reasoning for the Governor to abstain from invoking enhanced mandates.

Per a Seattle Times article, Inslee had been considering tighter restrictions, including removing the weekly testing option, requiring all employees to be vaccinated at larger companies with over 100 employees. Another consideration was to potentially impose vaccine mandates on smaller companies as well.