Employers can mandate vaccinations

A Texas judge has dismissed a case filed by employees of the Houston Methodist hospital system over its policy on Covid-19 vaccinations, issuing the first federal ruling on whether employers can mandate inoculations.

US District Court Judge Lynn Hughes dismissed the lawsuit on Saturday, ruling that Houston Methodist had the legal right to force employees to be vaccinated – even though the jabs have only received emergency-use authorization, not full approval, from the FDA. He said the claim by the 117 employees who sued the hospital system that the inoculations were experimental and dangerous was both “false” and “irrelevant,” as Texas law protects workers from wrongful termination only if they are fired for refusing to commit an act that carries criminal penalties.

“We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on unparalleled safety, quality, service, and innovation,” Houston Methodist chief executive Marc Boom said in a statement.

Houston Methodist put 178 employees on unpaid leave last Monday because they had refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The workers are scheduled to be fired on June 21 if they still haven’t complied with the mandate. In a message to staff last week, Boom chided the recalcitrant staffers, saying, “Unfortunately, a small number of individuals have decided not to put their patients first.”

The plaintiffs had argued that, by forcing them to take a vaccine that hadn’t gone through the extensive clinical trials needed for full FDA approval, Houston Methodist was essentially requiring them to be “human guinea pigs” in a de facto drug trial. Hughes ruled that, as a private employer, the hospital system didn’t have to give employees the option of refusing vaccination, and he found that they weren’t being forced into a human experiment because Houston Methodist hadn’t applied or been certified to conduct clinical trials.

It seems there is going to be an opportunity soon for people to start vaxx-free businesses. After all, if an employer can mandate vaccinations, it can also mandate vaccine-free status. And that might be an excellent way to filter out stupid and short-sighted people during the hiring process.

I tend to doubt this ruling will hold up, though. The judge appears to have made her decision more on the basis of her disapproval of the plaintiffs’ comparison to the holocaust than anything else. Still, it underlines the absolute insanity of the libertarian “private corporations are holy and their actions shalt not be questioned or infringed upon by the law” position.

And it is also clear that “the law” is now little more than a synonym for “evil word magic”. But it would still be helpful if the Texas legislature would immediately pass a new law banning vaccine mandates for employees.