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Texas Hospital System Can Require Employees to Get Covid-19 Vaccine, Judge Rules

The federal judge upheld Houston Methodist's vaccine requirement and said lawsuit's legal assertions lacked merit

The Houston Methodist hospital system has suspended without pay 178 full-time or part-time employees for not getting inoculated against Covid-19.

A federal judge in Texas ruled that a major hospital system in Houston can require its employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19, dismissing a lawsuit brought by workers who claimed the mandate unlawfully forced them to be human "guinea pigs."

U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes on Saturday upheld the Houston Methodist system's vaccine requirement, the first time a federal court hasruled on the legality of such an employer mandatedue to the pandemic, according to the plaintiffs' attorney.

In late March, Houston Methodist became the first major healthcare system in the U.S. to require Covid-19 vaccinations for its existing employees and new hires. The system, which employs more than 26,000 people, says employee vaccinations are essential to keeping patients safe.

More than 100 of its workers filed suit against the requirement in late May. They contended that the federally approved vaccines are experimental and dangerous and likened Houston Methodist's requirement to Nazi medical experiments on concentration-camp prisoners during the Holocaust. Among other claims, the suit said the system's policy violated a federal law governing the protection of "human subjects."

In a five-page ruling, Judge Hughes said the Nazi comparison was "reprehensible" and that the lawsuit's legal assertions misinterpreted the law and completely lacked merit.

"This is not coercion. Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the Covid-19 virus," he wrote. "It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safer." He wrote that the plaintiffs can freely choose to accept or refuse a vaccine, and if they choose the latter, they can work elsewhere.

Jared Woodfill, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said they plan to appeal the ruling and that his clients are "committed to fighting this unjust policy."

Dr. Marc Boom, president and chief executive of Houston Methodist, said the ruling allows the system to "continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service and innovation."

Federal health authorities have recommended that everyone 12 years and older get vaccinated. ThePfizer-BioNTechmRNA vaccine isavailable for children as young as 12, while Moderna's mRNA vaccine andJohnson & Johnson'ssingle-dose vaccine remain limited to people 18 and older.

More thanhalf the U.S. population is at least partially vaccinated, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though polling has shown that many unvaccinated people are still hesitant. The vaccines all received emergency-use authorization as a safe and effective inoculation against the virus.

Houston Methodist's policy allowed employees to request exemptions based on a documented medical condition or a conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs. It also allowed pregnant employees to delay their shots.

The policy aligned with updated guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissionissued last monththat said employers could require workers entering a workplace to be vaccinated.

In job postings, some employers havestarted to mandate shotsbefore candidates are hired, but it is unclear how many companies have adopted mandates like Houston Methodist's.

The system said it has suspended without pay 178 full-time or part-time employees for failing to comply with its requirement, with about a week remaining before the deadline. Of these employees, 27 are partially vaccinated.

The system said more than 600 of its workers received a medical or religious exemption or were granted deferrals for pregnancy and other reasons.

Among those suspended was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Jennifer Bridges, a registered nurse at Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital who contracted Covid-19 while treating patients during the height of the pandemic, according to her attorney