Hospital Sued By 117 Employees Over Vaccine Mandate

A few courageous hospital workers are taking their Houston hospital employer to task over mandated vaccination but are already being vilified for their actions. Their complaint is that they are being forced to act as “human guinea pigs” in an “experimental vaccine trial.” ⁃ TN Editor

A group of 117 Houston-area hospital employees on Friday filed a civil lawsuit against an employer hospital’s coronavirus vaccine mandate. The lawsuit alleges that the mandate violates both the Nuremberg Code and U.S. statutes that allow Americans to refuse “unapproved” medical treatments. It also alleges violations of Texas labor and employment laws.

That “people” are “trying to force you to put something into your body that you’re not comfortable with to keep your job is just insane,” lead plaintiff Jennifer Bridges told Houston CBS affiliate KHOU.

The defendants are The Methodist Hospital, the Methodist Hospital System, and Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital. The people in charge of those entities responded to the litigation by saying the plaintiffs are but a small minority of voices among 26,000 employees and that it is “legal for health care institutions to mandate vaccines.”

The Lawsuit.

The sharply worded 56-page complaint argues that the COVID-19 vaccines currently on the market were authorized merely as “emergency” measures and, thus, are not fully “approved” vaccines.

At the top of the document are words attributed to David Bernard, the CEO of Houston Methodist San Jacinto Hospital: “100% vaccination is more important than your individual freedom. Everyone [sic] of you is replaceable. If you don’t like what your [sic] doing you can leave and we will replace your spot.”

Those alleged words did not sit well with the plaintiffs.

“For the first time in the history of the United States, an employer is forcing an employee to participate in an experimental vaccine trial as a condition for continued employment,” the lawsuit argues.

The document continues by alleging that the defendant hospital “became the first major health care system in the country to force it [sic] employees to be injected with an experimental COVID-19 mRNA gene modification injection (‘experimental vaccine’) or be fired.”

“Methodist Hospital is forcing its employees to be human ‘guinea pigs’ as a condition for continued employment,” the lawsuit’s opening paragraph also says.

Continued at link.

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Sounds like a slave driver.

God's Law allows for individual freedom. So, what are these people doing with their demands and threats? They must be from the devil.

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Please please please stop sending me emails I have tried to unsubscribe from all your mail. I need a break!!!!!!! Please UNSUBSCRIBE ME from all your emails & aliases!!!!

Thank-you Roseannc, we're investigating it.

Catholic woman fired for refusing COVID vaccine awarded nearly $13M by Michigan court

A Catholic woman who was fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine was awarded over $12 million by a Michigan court Friday, according to court documents shared by her legal team.

Jon Marko represented Lisa Domski in a complaint against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM). Domski argued she was religiously discriminated against by BCBSM after she was fired for refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

A Michigan district court ruled Domski’s firing constituted religious discrimination as it denied her request for an accommodation after she claimed the vaccine conflicted with her faith. It ordered BCBSM to pay $10 million in punitive damages.

Domski will receive an additional $315,000 in back pay damages, $1,375,000 in front pay damages and $1 million in non-economic damages, for a total of nearly $13 million. Her lawyers cheered the ruling via Instagram as a major win against a healthcare giant.

“This case was one of the biggest honors of my career, that I had the privilege of working with @jonmarko on because it involved the biggest, most important thing to me in life, religious freedom!” the post reads. “[Marko] fought relentlessly, and I’m so proud to have been apart of the team to make a difference, and stand up to $32.8 Billion Dollar company!”

BCBSM told The National News Desk (TNND) Tuesday that while it "respects the jury process," it is disappointed by the verdict and is reviewing additional legal options.

"Throughout the pandemic, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, together with its employees, worked to promote the health and safety of our colleagues, stakeholders, and communities," the company said in a statement. "As part of that shared work, in October 2021, Blue Cross, and its subsidiaries, enacted a vaccine policy requiring all of its employees to be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 or obtain a religious or medical accommodation.”

"In implementing the vaccine policy, Blue Cross designed an accommodation process that complied with state and federal law and respected the sincerely held religious beliefs of its employees," it added.

The ruling follows a Republican-led report by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee last month finding the Department of Health and Human Services ran a “deeply flawed” COVID-19 messaging campaign.

BART to pay millions for firing employees who refused COVID vaccine

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/bart-to-pay-millions-for-firing-employees-who-refused-covid-vaccine/

Six former San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District employees who were fired for refusing to receive COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic will be paid more than $1 million each.

The $7.8-million payout was granted this week by federal jurors who deliberated over an employment discrimination lawsuit.

Employees named as plaintiffs in the suit lost their jobs because of a COVID vaccine mandate imposed by the transit agency at the height of the pandemic. Following a trial, the jury’s verdict sided with terminated employees.

BART is a heavy rail public transit system that connects the San Francisco Peninsula with communities in the East Bay and South Bay. When asked about the big payout on Thursday, the transit agency’s spokesperson told KRON4, “BART has no comment.”

On October 14, 2021, BART issued a “COVID-19 Vaccination Policy” requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated as a condition of employment, attorneys said. Employees who asked for exemptions because of “sincerely held religious beliefs” were fired, attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.

“Of the 179 religious objector employees, not one received an accommodation. Exclusion of religious people from the enjoyment of a right stands in violation of the First Amendment’s religion clauses and federal and state anti-discrimination in employment laws. 109 employees’ requests for religious exemption were denied,” attorneys wrote.

Unvaccinated workers said their religious beliefs prevented them from receiving COVID vaccines without violating their faiths.

The lawsuit was filed by the Pacific Justice Institute. The legal nonprofit group described the jury’s verdict as a “legal earthquake” for justice.

Brad Dacus, president of PJI, said, “These verdicts are seismic — a 7.8 San Francisco legal earthquake. This amazing outcome represents so much hard work by our team, perseverance by these clients, and fairness from our judicial system.”

The $7.8 million payout was calculated from lost wages, plus $1 million, for each fired employee.

The jury determined that BART officials failed to prove an undue hardship. On Wednesday, jurors concluded that the six employees had met their burden of showing a genuine conflict between their faith and the vaccine mandate.

Kevin Snider, who served as lead trial attorney, commented, “The rail employees chose to lose their livelihood rather than deny their faith. That in itself shows the sincerity and depth of their convictions. After nearly three years of struggle, these essential workers feel they were heard and understood by the jury and are overjoyed and relieved by the verdict.”

Nationwide, PJI represent hundreds of workers who lost their jobs after they were denied religious accommodations for COVID-19 vaccines.