Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a244_hgci.pdf
Page Number: 21.0

Cite as:  595 U. S. ____ (2022) 

5 

BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., dissenting 

as  a  “source  of  danger”);  id.,  at  24  (defining  “agent”  as  a 
“chemically,  physically,  or  biologically  active  principle”); 
id., at 1397 (defining “virus” as “the causative agent of an 
infectious disease”).

The virus also poses a “grave danger” to millions of em-
ployees.  As of the time OSHA promulgated its rule, more 
than  725,000  Americans  had  died  of  COVID–19  and  mil-
lions more had been hospitalized.  See 86 Fed. Reg. 61408,
61424; see also CDC, COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review: 
Interpretive  Summary  for  Nov.  5,  2021  (Jan.  12,  2022),
https://cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019–ncov/covid-data/covidview/
past-reports/11052021.html.    Since  then,  the  disease  has 
continued to work its tragic toll.  In the last week alone, it 
has caused, or helped to cause, more than 11,000 new deaths.
See  CDC,  COVID  Data  Tracker  (Jan.  12,  2022),  https://
covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_deathsinlast7days.  
And because the disease spreads in shared indoor spaces, it
presents  heightened  dangers  in  most  workplaces.    See  86 
Fed. Reg. 61411, 61424. 

Finally, the Standard is “necessary” to address the dan-
ger  of  COVID–19.  OSHA  based  its  rule,  requiring  either 
testing and masking or vaccination, on a host of studies and 
government  reports  showing  why  those  measures  were  of 
unparalleled  use  in  limiting  the  threat  of  COVID–19  in 
most workplaces.  The agency showed, in meticulous detail, 
that close contact between infected and uninfected individ-
uals spreads the disease; that “[t]he science of transmission
does not vary by industry or by type of workplace”; that test-
ing,  mask  wearing,  and  vaccination  are  highly  effective—
indeed,  essential—tools  for  reducing  the  risk  of  transmis-
sion, hospitalization, and death; and that unvaccinated em-
ployees of all ages face a substantially increased risk from 
COVID–19 as compared to their vaccinated  peers.  Id., at 
61403,  61411–61412,  61417–61419,  61433–61435,  61438– 
61439.  In short, OSHA showed that no lesser policy would 
prevent as much death and injury from COVID–19 as the