Federal judge rules hospital employees can be required to get vaccinated

Reuters

No doubt many more cases to come, and I suspect nearly all of them will not end well for anti-vaxxers. -  

A federal judge on Friday ruled that a Cincinnati, Ohio-area healthcare provider could require its employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their job, in what appears to be the first ruling of its kind for a private employer in the United States. 

The employees of St. Elizabeth Healthcare failed to establish that their individual liberties were being violated by the vaccine requirement of the hospital operator, which has the right to set employment terms, said U.S. District Judge David Bunning in Covington, Kentucky. 

St. Elizabeth employees must get vaccinated by Oct. 1. The widespread availability of vaccines in the United States helped to reduce infections in the spring and early summer but the Delta variant has led to a new spike in cases and hospitalizations. 

Alan Statman, who represented the employees, said they were evaluating their next steps. 

Bunning's ruling is the first involving a request for an injunction against a private employer's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, said Mark Guilfoyle, a lawyer who represented St. Elizabeth. 

In recent weeks, numerous large employers have begun to impose deadlines for employees to get vaccinated as COVID-19 infections remain elevated in the United States. (Read more)

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