June 10 – Mandatory requirements for employees to get the COVID 19 vaccination will hit the court system after Houston Methodist, a medical center and six community hospitals, suspended 178 workers for not getting the vaccine.
The employees have been suspended for two weeks without pay, 27 of whom actually got the first dose of the vaccine, but it didn’t comply with Houston Methodist’s deadlines.
The healthcare workers are taking their fight to court, saying they feel like human guinea pigs and have rights.
In Pennsylvania, legislation to ban the vaccine passport passed the Republican-controlled Senate yesterday.
The back-and-forth about vaccinations will hit the court system for the first time in Texas – where the possible final answers may be decided.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll, Pat Ryan and Michele Jansen discussed the vaccine mandate this morning on First News.
Barkdoll said, “This is a case to watch very closely because so far, no courts have weighed in on the legality of this. We know that OSHA and the EEOC have clearly said yes employers can make this a condition of your employment including the fact that you could be discharged if you refuse to get vaccinated. We’ll see what the court does in Texas about this. You are seeing more states passing legislation saying no vaccine passports, but Texas has not done that. That has not been implemented here in Pennsylvania, either. I doubt if Governor Wolf is going to sign that bill if it gets to his desk.”
The situation is quite fluid.
Barkdoll noted, “We continue to get almost daily calls and emails at my office about this. There are a lot of local employers both in the health care field and non-related fields that have made this a requirement and they’ve said if you don’t do it, you’re out of a job either at the end of August or the end of September are the two most common deadlines that I’ve seen.”
Jansen pointed out, “One thing that’s really disturbing is the continued research and evidence coming out showing that once you’ve had the disease you are as protected as having a vaccine. For some reason we’re totally discounting that. Employees that had the disease itself, can prove they’ve had the disease itself, are still being told they have to be vaccinated by places that choose to make that mandatory, but the science indicates that that is unnecessary. There’s also the reports that you can have worse side effects after you already have antibodies.”
Barkdoll added, “Remember part two of this is if you’ve been vaccinated it appears that you’re going to have to get a booster shot as early as September or October and how does that play in to these workplace requirements? If someone shows them their original vaccine card, they make it through this initial screen, but are the employers then going to have an ongoing restriction that you must get the booster shot as a condition of your employment? This is a very complicated issue. It will be interesting to see what that court in Texas does with this case.”
