Test kits sit on a table as healthcare professional Kenzie Anderson prepares to take a sample at a United Memorial Medical Center COVID-19 testing site Friday, June 26, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
More than 150 employees at a Houston hospital were fired or resigned after refusing to be vaccinated when a federal judge’s ruling threw out a lawsuit they had filed over the vaccine requirement.
This is one of the first mass terminations since vaccinations started in the U.S., reinvigorating a national anti-vaccine movement.
A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by 117 employees over the covid-19 vaccination requirement. The hospital system’s decision in April to require the vaccine for workers made it the first major U.S. health care system to do so.
The employees alleged that the policy was unlawful and forced staffers to be “guinea pigs” for vaccines that had not gone through the full Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process.
The FDA has authorized three coronavirus vaccines for emergency use, following rigorous clinical trials involving tens of thousands of people, and both Pfizer and Moderna have applied for full approval for their vaccines.
An ultrasound technologist who says she was fired by a Houston hospital because she would not get vaccinated against the coronavirus told CNN she does not “want to work for people like that”.
“Don’t take away my choice,” said LaTricia Blank, who worked at Houston Methodist hospital for eight-and-a-half years.
How far health care institutions can go to protect patients and others against the coronavirus is being watched closely. The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. but it will not be the end of the debate.
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Houston Methodist Hospital began the vaccine requirement for its 25,000-plus employees across Texas this year, claiming to be the first hospital in the nation with a covid-19 vaccine mandate.
Those who did not provide proof of vaccination by June 7 — or who had not applied for an exemption based on “medical condition or sincerely held religious belief” — faced suspension without pay for two weeks.
The hospital fired two managers for refusing the vaccine in April, and suspended 178 more staff members on June 7.
READ MORE: Vaccine Passports: How They Would Work And Why Critics And Privacy Advocates Oppose Them
