Houston Methodist Sued Over COVID Vax Mandate

More than 100 current and former employees of Houston Methodist are suing the medical system for mandating that employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 or face termination.

Houston Methodist, a seven-hospital system, is being charged with wrongful discharge and violating a federal law dictating "that where a medical product is 'unapproved' then no one may be mandated to take it," according to the lawsuit shared with MedPage Today by the employees' joint attorney.

The 117 plaintiffs are asking for a temporary injunction against firings related to the "illegal" vaccine policy, and requesting a declaration to invalidate the policy altogether.

The suit cites a Texas exemption that "allows an employee to sue for wrongful termination if he is fired for the sole reason that he refused to perform an illegal act," and argues that "plaintiffs have suffered lost wages, loss of earnings capacity, lost benefits, lost future earnings, mental anguish, inconvenience, and loss of enjoyment of life" due to Houston Methodist carrying out the policy.

Among the plaintiffs are nurses, receptionists, technicians, and administrators, according to a Washington Post report. They include Jennifer Bridges, RN, a Baytown Hospital nurse who has spoken out against the policy and refused to follow it, and Bob Nevens, the system's former corporate risk and insurance director, who recently told MedPage Today he was fired for declining to get vaccinated.

"For the first time in the history of the United States, an employer is forcing an employee to participate in an experimental vaccine trial as a condition for continued employment," the suit claims. Houston Methodist is requiring "employees to be injected with an experimental COVID-19 mRNA gene modification injection ('experimental vaccine') or be fired," forcing them "to be human 'guinea pigs' as a condition for continued employment."

The suit acknowledges that FDA has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the COVID-19 vaccines. But an EUA "is not an FDA [full] approval," it notes. "There is much the FDA does not know about these products....Further studies need to be done."

The suit cites the Nuremberg Code as precedent, comparing the employees to prisoners of concentration camps during World War II who did not consent to having Nazi doctors experiment on them. "This, as a matter of fact, is a gene modification medical experiment on human beings, performed without informed consent. It is a severe and blatant violation of the Nuremberg Code," it reads.

Jared Woodfill of the Woodfill Law Firm in Houston is representing the plaintiffs. They are suing the Houston Methodist system, including the The Woodlands Hospital in the District Court of Montgomery County, a suburban county just north of downtown Houston. Woodfill has been involved in numerous coronavirus-related lawsuits, the Houston Press reported.

Lawsuit Premise Is 'Absurd Indeed'

Houston Methodist and many public health experts have noted that the COVID-19 vaccines are as safe and effective as other common vaccines, including the flu vaccine, which the hospital system mandated for employees in 2009, according to a spokesperson.

"The FDA granted emergency use for the [COVID] vaccines because rigorous clinical trials showed they are safe," CEO Marc Boom, MD, wrote in a May email to MedPage Today.

Calling the vaccines experimental "is absurd indeed," Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, an immunologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, told the Washington Post. Experts have also discredited the lawsuit's gene modification claim.

Houston Methodist became the first major healthcare system in the U.S. to mandate all its employees get vaccinated in early April, according to Boom. The policy was enacted to set an example and better protect clinical employees and patients, he said.

In late April, Boom announced that employees would be suspended and eventually fired if they did not meet vaccination deadlines. The ultimate deadline is June 7, and includes residents and fellows, whom Boom deemed "employees."

Employers may legally require the vaccine for "all employees physically entering the workplace," the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said in a press release issued on Friday, "so long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of ... the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other EEO considerations."

Johnie Leonard, RN, Houston Methodist's ED nursing director, said she supports the mandate and was "not at all" concerned about getting inoculated, given what she has learned about the vaccines.

"We are choosing healthcare and we should do everything we can to be able to safely take care of our patients. Folks can choose where they want to work," she said. "[Methodist] would not be asking us to do something that would put our staff at risk."

Houston Methodist typically has been administering the mRNA-based Pfizer/BioNTech shot. The system would require that employees get booster shots if public health authorities encourage them, the spokesperson wrote, "as that is part of being fully vaccinated, which is our goal."

The system is allowing employees to apply for religious or medical exemptions, but the suit claims Houston Methodist has "arbitrarily denied" such exemptions. Nevens shared an internal corporate email sent listing "noncompliant" managers, for example; sorted by "exemption request determination," it shows that of 12 who requested an exemption, nine were denied, three were ruled "incomplete," and none were granted.

"Exemptions are reviewed by a committee," countered Boom. "We offer them in accordance with EEOC guidelines." The system is not yet tracking exemptions, a spokesperson wrote, promising an answer by mid-June.

Terminated employees are receiving payouts for banked paid time off "when eligible," according to the spokesperson, but no severances. Said Nevens of his termination: "All around it's been a terrible experience."

Battle Continues Outside Court, Too

Boom recently penned an editorial in MedPage Today further explaining the system's rationale for the vaccine requirement. More than 99% of the system's 26,000 employees have been vaccinated, according to reports. Since Houston Methodist announced its mandate, at least two other large healthcare systems have announced similar mandates.

These developments did not soften resistance. Some employees protested recently and have said they don't appreciate having to choose between getting vaccinated and keeping their jobs -- especially after the pandemic. "We all went through so much. We all are feeling very bullied right now," Bridges said.

Nevens is worried about potential vaccine side effects. "I'm not taking an experimental vaccine," he said. "I'm a risk manager; I weigh my risks." But he said he's primarily anti-mandate and not anti-vaccine. He is concerned the Houston Methodist requirement could set a precedent: "My real fear about this is there's this huge, massive push to mandate everything associated with this vaccine."

"My sense is [Houston Methodist leaders] want to put out there that they are leaders in medicine," Nevens added. "It wasn't about making accommodations; it was about them being 100% vaccinated."

Nevens suggested that Boom's wife, Julie Boom, MD, who directs the Texas Children's Hospital Immunization Project, influenced Houston Methodist's policy.

But Houston Methodist's CEO disputed that. "We have had a scientific and medical committee made up of some of the nation's best experts who have made recommendations," he wrote. "The committee supported an employee vaccine mandate... Each of our eight independent medical staffs also made the same decision."

Bridges has launched a GoFundMe page to raise attorney fees and started an online petition against the policy. As of June 1, nearly 8,500 people had signed the petition and more than $24,000 had been contributed via the GoFundMe page by more than 300 people.

"It is unfortunate," Boom told The Post, "that the few remaining employees who refuse to get vaccinated and put our patients first are responding in this way."

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