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US judges won’t block mandate of vaccines for NY paramedics

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a request for a COVID-19 vaccine for health care workers in New York without requesting a religious exemption.

The court has dealt with urgent appeals from doctors, nurses and other health care workers who say they are being forced to choose between work and religious beliefs.

Typically in such appeals the court has not interpreted its order, although similarly, the court has refused to interfere with vaccine mandates elsewhere.

Judges Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito disagreed. “Now, thousands of health care workers in New York face job loss and are ineligible for unemployment benefits,” Gorsuch wrote in a 14-page opinion piece that Alito joined.

New York is one of three states, along with Maine and Rhode Island, that do not accept health care workers who oppose vaccines on religious grounds.

The court had previously denied health care workers in Maine who had filed a similar challenge, with the same three dissenting judges.

As of October 19, about 90% of healthcare workers have been fully vaccinated and most of the rest have received one of two doses, the state told the supreme court. Less than 2% of nursing homes, adult care facilities and hospital staff, the state said, have applied for a religious exemption.

In his dissent, Gorsuch drew a connection between World War II health care workers and students of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who refused to stand and salute the American flag for Pledge of allegiance for religious reasons.

The court initially refused to intervene when a Pennsylvania public school expelled the children. But three years later, judges dismissed the previous case in a landmark decision that declared schools could not force students to salute the flag or recite the pledge.

“Today, our Nation is not facing a world war but a pandemic. However, like war, pandemics often create new social norms that require the protection of the collective interest – and with those rules can lead to fear and anger towards individuals. unable to comply for religious reasons,” wrote Gorsuch.

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