A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by more than 100 Houston, TX hospital workers who objected to a mandate to take a COVID-19 vaccine or risk being fired. Houston Methodist Hospital which owns and operates eight hospitals in the area told employees they had until June 7th to receive the vaccine or they would be suspended or fired.
Last week, the HMH suspended more than 150 employees without pay. However, 117 employees filed a lawsuit against the mandate alleging the vaccine is “experimental and dangerous” which U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston ruled was false.
According to The Daily Wire:
“Bridges can freely choose to accept or refuse a COVID-19 vaccine; however, if she refuses, she will simply need to work somewhere else,” Hughes wrote.
“If a worker refuses an assignment, changed office, earlier start time, or other directive, he may be properly fired. Every employment includes limits on the worker’s behavior in exchange for remuneration. That is all part of the bargain,” the judge said.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Jared Woodfill, disagreed and vowed to file an appeal. “All of my clients continue to be committed to fighting this unjust policy,” Woodfill said in a statement.
“What is shocking is that many of my clients were on the front line treating COVID-positive patients at Texas Methodist Hospital during the height of the pandemic. As a result, many of them contracted COVID-19. As a thank you for their service and sacrifice, Methodist Hospital awards them a pink slip and sentences them to bankruptcy,” Woodfill said.
The plaintiffs noted that the hospital is requiring employees to receive a vaccine that hasn’t been fully approved by the FDA and also cited the Nuremberg Code, which “bans forced medical experimentations, again in effect arguing that the vaccine is experimental and potentially unsafe.”