The Supreme Court issued a revision on Monday of oral arguments over President Joe Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate after the previously uncorrected transcript quoted Justice Neil Gorsuch claiming the flu kills “hundreds of thousands of people every year.”
Online political commentators and news outlets were quick to call out Gorsuch on Friday after the transcript appeared to suggest the justice nominated by then-President Donald Trump did not know the average number of flu fatalities per year. Critics suggested Gorsuch lacked understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic’s magnitude, which has killed nearly 800,000 people from 2020 through 2021.
“The flu kills about 30,000 Americans each year. I’m kinda surprised Gorsuch would broadcast his ignorance like this. I looked this up with help from Google in about 10 seconds,” journalist Aaron Rupar tweeted in response to the uncorrected transcript.
But on Monday, the Supreme Court updated its transcript, confirming Gorsuch did not say what many online commentators believed him to have said. The revised transcript quoted Gorsuch as saying: “The flu kills, I believe, hundreds, thousands of people every year.”
TEAM SCHUMER POUNCES AFTER POLITICO CORRECTS STORY CLAIMING SUPREME COURT JUSTICE MET WITH DEMOCRATS
NEW: in Friday’s transcript of the OSHA vaccine rule oral argument, Justice Gorsuch was recorded as claiming (erroneously) that “hundreds of thousands” die yearly from the flu. That transcript has been corrected to show “hundreds, thousands”, which is consistent with the audio. pic.twitter.com/v7H03PF4OU
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) January 10, 2022
“We have vaccines against that — that, but the federal government through OSHA, so far as I know, and you can correct me, does not mandate every worker in the country to receive such a vaccine,” Gorsuch said on Friday. “We have flu vaccines. The flu kills, I believe, hundreds, thousands of people every year. OSHA has never purported to regulate on that basis.”
Media figures also jumped on claims made by Democratic-appointed justices during Friday’s oral arguments, when Justice Sonia Sotomayor erroneously claimed more than 100,000 children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and Justice Stephen Breyer falsely claimed there were “750 million new cases yesterday,” though Breyer previously noted a more concurrent estimate of 750,000 U.S. cases.
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Gorsuch chimed with other Republican-appointed justices on Friday who showed some apprehension toward the Occupational Safety and Health Administration vaccine-or-test mandate, which went into partial effect on Monday. Workers of businesses employing 100 or more people are required to be fully vaccinated or be subject to weekly COVID-19 tests beginning Feb. 9.
A ruling over the vaccine-or-test mandate challenged in Friday’s National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor case is expected soon, as the measure is slated to go into full effect next month.
