Over 150 Texas healthcare workers fired or resign over mandatory vaccine policy

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Over 150 healthcare workers in Houston in Texas resigned or were fired over mandatory Covid-19 vaccine policy after a judge dismissed an employee lawsuit over it.

Employees of the Houston Methodist hospital system had filed the lawsuit against the hospital’s April 2021 decision to require the vaccine for workers. But many employees were against it and filed a lawsuit against it comparing their situation to medical experiments performed on unwilling victims in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

On 12 June, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by 117 employees over the requirement. US District Judge Lynn Hughes called that comparison “reprehensible” and said claims made in the lawsuit that the vaccines are experimental and dangerous are false.

The judge said that if the employees didn’t like the requirement, they could go work elsewhere. the employees have already appealed against his decision.

A spokesperson for Houston Methodist hospital system said 153 employees either resigned in the two-week suspension period or were terminated on Tuesday.

Jennifer Bridges, a registered nurse who is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Houston Methodist, said her director called her Tuesday to ask if she’d gotten the vaccine yet or made any effort to do so.

She said that when she replied “absolutely not,” she was told that she was terminated. “We all knew we were getting fired today. We knew unless we took that shot to come back, we were getting fired today. There was no ifs, ands or buts,” said Ms Bridges.

The case was being closely watched as the hospital system’s decision about mandatory vaccination had made it the first major US health care system to do so. However, even after the court decision, the debate over the issue is expected to continue.

Other hospital systems around the US have also followed the Houston Methodist’s example including in Washington DC, Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and recently New York, and have also received pushback.

Kavita Patel, a Washington, DC, physician, tweeted: “This is likely to play out across the country as many healthcare settings consider a mandate (newsflash they should). You can’t treat patients and pose a risk to their health.”

Houston Methodist’s president Marc Boom has said nearly 25,000 of the system’s more than 26,000 workers have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

“You did the right thing. You protected our patients, your colleagues, your families and our community. The science proves that the vaccines are not only safe but necessary if we are going to turn the corner against Covid-19,” said Mr Boom, in a statement to employees.

Additional reporting by agencies