Medical staff sues their hospital in Texas for requiring them to be vaccinated against Covid-19

More than a hundred employees of one of the most important hospitals in Texas, United States, sued their employer who is determined to act against employees not vaccinated against the covid-19.

The Houston Methodist hospital group had given its employees until Monday to prove they had received the vaccine.

The 117 plaintiffs consider this requirement illegal because they consider that the vaccines have been approved by the US authorities as part of an urgent use procedure.

“We are not against the vaccine. We just want to be more comfortable and have more research before we inoculate,” said nurse Jennifer Bridges a few weeks ago.

After Monday’s deadline, the hospital said in an internal note that recalcitrants will be suspended without pay and then fired if they persist in disregarding the order.

In a social network, Bridges urged the public to express support for his cause on his last day of work at the Baytown campus, near Houston.

Several dozen moved to the scene at dusk.

Among them was Kerry Richard, a city resident in her 40s. “I was a nurse and I also lost my job for being true to my convictions and not wearing a mask or visor,” she said.

“I had to come to support my fellow freethinkers,” she told the AFP.

“We are proud to report that nearly 100% of our 26,000 employees made the right decision with the sacred mission of protecting our patients,” Houston Methodist said in a statement.

“It’s too bad yesterday’s move to make Houston Methodist the safest hospital in the country was overshadowed by some disgruntled employees.”

Houston is one of the world capitals of medicine thanks to its Texas Medical Center, a district of the city that concentrates hospitals and universities. More than 106,000 people work there and some 10 million patients are treated each year.

In the United States, 52% of the population received at least one dose of the Covid 19 vaccine.

Paradoxically, a study last December conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation among 1,676 adults indicated that 29% of those who work in the medical sector did not want to be vaccinated or would not.