A group of Minnesota healthcare workers who are suing several of the state’s healthcare systems over the COVID vaccine mandates are going to be forced to identify themselves. A judge ruled on Tuesday that they must give the names of the plaintiffs to all of the defendants.
WCCO reported that nearly 200 Minnesota healthcare workers were suing their employers after vaccine mandates began rolling out following President Joe Biden’s declaration that COVID vaccines would be mandates for employers with over 100 employees and for those in the medical industry.
“The nurses filed the lawsuit using pseudonyms out of fear of ‘being ostracized,’ fired or facing ‘other retaliatory consequences if their names become known,’” Alpha News reported.
The suit quotes President Joe Biden, who said in his speech declaring his intent to enforce mandates: “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us … For the vast majority of you who have gotten vaccinated, I understand your anger at those who haven’t gotten vaccinated.”
The lawsuit from the healthcare workers says, “Influential Americans, including the President himself, are stirring up ‘anger,’ blame, and hostility against the unvaccinated, necessitating anonymity in this lawsuit.”
The healthcare workers list several reasons for declining the COVID vaccine within the lawsuit. One of the reasons given are religious beliefs: “The Plaintiff employees include some whose sincere religious beliefs compel them to refuse vaccinations with the available Covid-19 vaccines, all of which employ aborted fetus cell lines in their testing, development, or production.”
Other objections to taking the COVID vaccine included having been denied religious exemptions, the presence of “robust natural immunity” following COVID infection, being pregnant or being “unwilling to risk taking a vaccine.”
The lawsuit names the following entities and persons as defendants:
- Affiliated Community Medical Centers, Ltd.
- Allina Health System
- Carris Health – Redwood, LLC
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention
- Centers For Medicare & Medicaid Services
- CentraCare Health System
- Children’s Health Care
- Essentia Health
- Fairview Health Services
- Fairview Physician Associates Network
- Gillette Children’s Specialty Health Care
- Group Health Plan, Inc.
- Lakeview Memorial Hospital Association, Inc.
- Mayo Clinic
- Minneapolis Radiation Oncology, P.A.
- North Memorial Health Care
- Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
- Regions Hospital
- Rochelle P Walensky
- SMDC Medical Center
- St. Luke’s Hospital of Duluth
- St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic Health System
- United States Department of Health and Human Services
- University of Minnesota Physicians
- Xavier Becerra
After the Tuesday hearing that lasted nearly three hours, the judge handling the case, Federal Judge Nancy Brasel ordered the health care workers’ attorneys to “provide a list of the identities of the plaintiffs named in the complaint to the defendants” by Friday, court records say.
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Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
