A New York judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a requirement that healthcare workers receive COVID-19 vaccines against the wishes of employees with religious objections.
U.S. District Judge David Hurd in Utica, in a written order, said he was blocking the mandate from taking effect on September 27 because it does not allow for exemptions based on workers' religious beliefs.
The order came in a lawsuit filed Monday by 17 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who say New York's requirement violates their constitutional rights in various ways.
A lawsuit was filed Monday by 17 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who say New York's requirement violates their constitutional rights in various ways
New York resident Krystel Walk interacts with a large crowd rainsing their voices against a mandate to get vaccinated or lose their jobs at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York on August 25, 2021
The plaintiffs are all Christians who say they object to receiving the vaccines because the cell lines of aborted fetuses were used in their testing and development.
Hurd gave the state until September 22 to respond to the lawsuit, and said he will hold a hearing on September 28 whether to block the vaccine requirement from taking effect pending the outcome of the case.
The mandate was issued last month by former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said at the time that about 75% of the state's roughly 450,000 hospital workers were fully vaccinated.
The New York Attorney General's office, which represents the state, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did lawyers for the plaintiffs.
U.S. District Judge David Hurd in Utica, in a written order, said he was blocking the mandate from taking effect on September 27 because it does not allow for exemptions based on workers' religious beliefs.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference, Monday, May 10, 2021
Just last week, President Joe Biden announced the federal government's aggressive new approach to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which included new vaccine rules that the White House says will affect two-third of the American workforce.
The strategy involves six steps all aimed at boosting the US vaccination rate, which fell over the summer as a new wave fueled by the Delta variant plunged health care systems in areas with largely unvaccinated populations back into disarray.
About 73.4 percent of Americans over the age of 12 have at least one vaccine dose, but less than 63 percent are fully vaccinated - far short of the threshold to reach herd immunity.
President Joe Biden announced the federal government's aggressive new approach to fight the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, which include new vaccine rules that the White House says will affect two-third of the American workforce
Biden's approach includes mandating all federal employees and federal contractors get vaccinated, requiring vaccinations for more than 17 million healthcare workers at Medicare and Medicaid-participating facilities and requiring all businesses with 100 or more employees to tell their workers to get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID testing.
On Saturday, a hospital in upstate New York announced it will temporarily stop delivering babies after six employees in a maternity ward resigned instead of getting vaccinated for COVID-19.
Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville said on Friday that it will pause delivering babies after September 24.
In Texas, employees at the Houston Methodist hospital walked out of their shifts to protest the health system's COVID-19 vaccine requirement in June.
Ashton Handley, a worker who resigned a few weeks before the protest, said she believes getting the vaccine is a choice.
'I'm not on either side, I'm not anti-vaxxer, I've received my vaccine, but I believe it should be someone's choice," she told Houston's FOX 26 at the time.
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