"The flu kills people every year," Gorsuch said. "Traditionally OSHA does not regulate in this area."

"COVID-19 is unprecedented," U.S. solicitor general Elizabeth Prelogar responded.

"We have flu vaccines. Flu kills—I believe—hundreds of thousands of people every year," the conservative justice said in an incorrect assertion. "How do we regulate that?" he asked.

In reality, the flu kills, at most, tens of thousands each year—not hundreds of thousands. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the flu kills between 12,000 and 52,000 Americans annually.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic killed nearly 800,000 Americans from 2020 through 2021. In September 2018, then CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said that the previous winter's flu season had been the worst in some four decades, resulting in an estimated 80,000 deaths.

Prelogar later in the line of questioning with Gorsuch said that OSHA would likely require flu vaccines in more extreme cases, pointing to the 1918 flu pandemic as an example. "Certainly if there was a similar 1918 influenza outbreak like there was before," the attorney posited that OSHA may require vaccinations.

Too many sources to cite.

Is it too much to ask that Judges - who now are ready to rule our lives - have some grasp of simple facts? And if they don't know simple facts, can they do like Thomas and just remain silent.?
[Post edited by Lazarus at 01/08/2022 08:45AM]