And so it begins. Lawsuits are beginning over proposed vaccine mandates for employees across the country. While an impressive number of people have already been fully vaccinated in the U.S., there are still plenty of people who, for one reason or another, are opting to skip the vaccine for now. That’s not sitting well with some employers, prompting some to require it. However, employees at a Texas hospital aren’t having it, and have filed a lawsuit in response. 

Doctor holding red stethoscope; image by Online Marketing, via Unsplash.com.

According to a lawsuit filed by 117 unvaccinated employees, Houston Methodist Hospital “gave employees a June 7 deadline to receive the vaccine or risk suspension and termination.” The complaint states:“Methodist Hospital is forcing its employees to be human ‘guinea pigs’ as a condition for continued employment.”The suit also notes that the vaccine is only approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and has not been fully approved and licensed. This is making some people a bit more hesitant to roll up their sleeves. On top of that, the suit also points to the Nuremburg Code, “which bans forced medical experimentations, again in effect arguing that the vaccine is experimental and potentially unsafe.”Jared Woodfill is the attorney representing the plaintiffs. He said the “hospital is trying to vaccinate employees in a bid to boost profitability.” He added:“To promote its business and increase profits at the expense of other health care providers and their employees' health, defendants advertise to the public that they 'require all employees and employed physicians to get a COVID-19 vaccine.”Medical professionals have repeatedly shot pushed back against the claim that the vaccine is experimental. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University said:“This claim is absurd indeed…There were tens of thousands of people who were in the Phase 3 clinical trials for the mRNA vaccines, and no safety concerns were found.”Marc Boom, the CEO of Methodist, said that so far 99% of the hospital system’s employees have been fully vaccinated and said healthcare workers have a “sacred obligation” to get vaccinated. He added:“It is unfortunate that the few remaining employees who refuse to get vaccinated and put our patients first are responding in this way…It is legal for health care institutions to mandate vaccines, as we have done with the flu vaccine since 2009. The COVID-19 vaccines have proven through rigorous trials to be very safe and very effective and are not experimental.”Of the unvaccinated plaintiffs, none are doctors. Some are nurses and the others are not healthcare providers.

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Texas hospital faces lawsuit over coronavirus vaccination mandate117 employees sue Houston Methodist hospital for requiring COVID-19 vaccine