Many healthcare facilities are simply not set up or equipped to offer multiple choices as alternatives to vaccination , nor do they have adequately trained vaccination providers that can fully answer questions that patients and members of the healthcare provider team may have .”
Bridges , RN , filed suit May 28 in Montgomery County District Court in Texas with 116 other employees of Houston Methodist Hospital , asserting that the vaccination mandate imposed by the healthcare system was illegal and forced personnel to take an experimental vaccine to maintain their employment .
Bridges says the lawsuit was filed initially in state court , as they were attempting to secure an injunction to prevent the healthcare system from firing employees over vaccination status . Bridges says the healthcare system ’ s attorney got the lawsuit moved to federal court and the case went straight to U . S . District judge Lynn N . Hughes ’ desk .
“ We thought that with a federal judge , it ’ s going to take a few months ,” Bridges says . “ Within two days he was already calling in the lawyers , wanting to get it done fast , so at first we thought maybe he would try to help us . But instead , he didn ’ t hold a hearing , he called both sets of lawyers in but did not allow my lawyer to present any information or evidence . He said the case was dismissed , just like that .”
The lawsuit alleged that Houston Methodist violated Texas public policy and the Nuremberg Code , a medical ethics code for human experimentation drafted in 1947 and triggered by the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II . The plaintiffs ’ attorney , Jared Woodfill , of Woodfill Law Firm , PC , has said that the healthcare system ’ s mandate was intended to place profit ahead of employee health , and both Woodfill and Bridges have explained in mainstream media interviews that being forced to take an experimental and possibly dangerous vaccine constituted serving as “ human guinea pigs .”
Bridges says Houston Methodist announced its mandatory vaccination policy on April 1 , stating that by June 7 , all employees were expected to be vaccinated . Employees were allowed to receive medical or religious exemptions or defer vaccination if they were pregnant .
On June 12 , Hughes ruled that the healthcare system did not violate state or federal law or public policy with its requirement and dismissed the lawsuit against Houston Methodist , a large healthcare system comprised of an academic medical center and six community hospitals that was the first in the country to implement a vaccination mandate for employees .
Bridges says an appeal has been filed with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals , and she and her attorney are awaiting information on a hearing soon . They also filed a state lawsuit and received word of a hearing slated for May 2022 , she says .
In the June 12 Order on Dismissal , Hughes wrote , “ Bridges dedicates the bulk of her pleadings to arguing that the currently available COVID-19 vaccines are experimental and dangerous . This claim is false , and it is also irrelevant . Bridges argues that , if she is fired for refusing to be injected with a vaccine , she will be wrongfully terminated . Vaccine safety and efficacy are not considered in adjudicating this issue . Texas law only protects employees from being terminated for refusing to commit an act carrying criminal penalties to that worker .” Hughes cites the 1985 case of Sabine Pilot Serv ., Inc . v . Hauck .
Hughes notes that to succeed on a wrongful termination claim , Bridges would have had to show that she was required to commit an illegal act that carried criminal penalties ; that she refused to engage in the illegality ; she was discharged ; and the only reason for the discharge was the refusal to commit an unlawful act , per Sabine v . Hauck . Hughes writes further , “ Bridges does not specify what illegal act she has refused to perform , but in the press-release style of the complaint , she says that she refuses to be a ‘ human guinea pig .’ Receiving a COVID-19 vaccination is not an illegal act , and it carries no criminal penalties . She is refusing to accept inoculation that , in the hospital ’ s judgment , will make it safer for their workers and the patients in Methodist ’ s care .”
A Houston Methodist public relations representative shared emails from president and CEO Marc Boom , MD , as statements “ which we have openly provided to media .” In a reaction to the Order on Dismissal , Boom wrote in an email , “ Our employees and physicians made their decisions for our patients , who are always at the center of everything we do . They have fulfilled their sacred obligation as healthcare workers , and we couldn ’ t ask for a more dedicated , caring and talented team .”
Boom announced the mandatory vaccinations in an April 2021 email to all employees . At the time , he alluded to the 84 percent of employees who were already vaccinated , referred to the June 7 deadline , and noted that the consequences of not being compliant included suspension and eventual termination . Boom explained , “ Mandating the vaccine was not a decision we made lightly . The process was reminiscent of how we made the decision to become one of the first in the country to mandate the flu vaccine in 2009 . Because science has proven that the COVID-19 vaccines are not only safe , but extremely effective , it became an easier decision to make . The FDA ’ s recent decision to pause the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine proves how carefully the vaccines are being monitored . Like we do , the FDA takes patient safety very seriously and paused the J & J vaccine after six people , out of 6.8 million doses , reported severe side effects . We primarily administer the Pfizer vaccine , which uses mRNA technology , which has now been used safely in well over 100 million individuals in the U . S . alone . Now we must do our part to keep patients and ourselves safe . And please know , we would never ask you to do anything that we thought was unsafe .”
Bridges says that last December , her former healthcare system was among the first hospitals in the country to secure the Pfizer vaccine , which was being offered to employees that winter .
“ When they began offering ( the vaccine ) to employees , it was ‘ Hey , it ’ s here , come get it ,’” Bridges says . “ Only maybe 40 percent of about 26,000 employees got vaccinated at the time . In February