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Can you imagine a pandemic so devastating that we can afford to fire health care workers who refuse to voluntarily inject a vaccine into their arms?
This appears to be exactly what’s happening.
In the lawsuit, health care workers say the vaccine presents a risk to their health or violates their religious freedom.
The Supreme Court brushed these concerns aside, allowing the hospital to fire workers who refuse the drug.
The Court ultimately ruled against an appeal from a group of Massachusetts health care workers, according to NBC.
“Massachusetts health care workers said their hospital’s Covid vaccine requirement violated their religious freedom or would present a risk to their health,” the report explains.
Justice Stephen Breyer, a Democrat-appointed judge, currently handles appeals from that part of the country.
Breyer suggests the case lacks merit. He rejected the request and didn’t even seek a response from the hospital nor refer the matter to the full court.
More from NBC:
The application for an emergency stay was filed by employees of Mass General Brigham who refused to be vaccinated and were fired or placed on unpaid leave. The workers sought religious or medical exemptions but were turned down. They later sued, arguing the hospital had violated federal laws prohibiting discrimination.
The hospital announced in June that it would require employees to be vaccinated, and it set up committees to review individual requests for exemptions based on medical or religious objections. About half of those objecting were given exemptions, according to court documents.
The fact that the hospital “is already accommodating hundreds of other employees conclusively refutes respondent’s mere assertions that it would cause an undue hardship to accommodate ‘further exemptions’ or ‘additional unvaccinated employees,'” the workers said in their emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.
Since August, the court has turned down other challenges to vaccine mandates from students at Indiana University, teachers in New York and health care workers in Maine.
However, a federal judge on Monday temporarily halted implementation of a Biden administration vaccine mandate for health care workers at facilities that receive federal funding. That ruling applies only in the 10 states that sued over the rule.
