About 50 health care workers are suing a Detroit hospital system to demand that all workers be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, arguing that the mandate violates their bodily autonomy.
The complaint, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, said the Henry Ford Health System vaccination warrant, which is scheduled to officially take effect on Friday, violates the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment to “Personal Autonomy and Body Integrity.”
Lawyers representing Henry Ford’s doctors, nurses and other employees who filed the lawsuit cited unverified reports from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to argue that as of Aug. 20, more than 13,000 people in the U.S. who were vaccinated against COVID-19 have died, with more than 30,000 reporting permanent disabilities and life-threatening events.
The CDC states in a notice on the VAERS website that vaccine suppliers “it is recommended that VAERS be informed of any clinically significant health problems after vaccination, regardless of whether or not they believe the cause of the vaccine. “
However, the plaintiffs argued that the mandate of Henry Ford’s vaccine subjects employees “to a significant likelihood of bodily harm.”
Employees, represented by VonAllmen & Associates and Renz Law, also filed a motion Monday for a temporary restraining order to prevent the hospital system from fulfilling the mandate until the legal complaint is resolved.
Henry Ford responded to the lawsuit defending his vaccine requirement, and said in a statement shared with The Hill:We are confident that vaccination is the most powerful tool we all have against the COVID-19 pandemic. “
“Beyond that, we cannot comment on pending litigation,” the hospital system added.
When announcing the term in June, Henry Ford’s president and CEO, Wright Lassiter III, said: “As a leader and voice of trust in our communities, our patients and members depend on us to create a healthy and safe environment.”
“We owe this same promise to the members of our team. The safety and prevention of infections are everyone’s responsibility, “he added.
The mandate applies to all members of the hospital systems team, students, volunteers and contractors, according to the hospital’s June announcement.
Several states, local governments, and hospitals across the country have announced COVID-19 vaccine requirements for health care workers, especially after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to to people over 16 years of age.
As of Tuesday, nearly 56 percent of Michigan’s total population has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with approximately 51 percent fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.