Trumps DOJ goes after WI county for pushing nurse asst to get flu shot against 'sincerely held...

[DonViejo]

Trump’s DOJ goes after WI county for pushing nurse asst to get flu shot against her ‘sincerely held Christian belief’

NOOR AL-SIBAI
07 MAR 2018 AT 17:39 ET

The Trump Justice Department is suing Wisconsin’s Ozaukee County for alleged civil rights violations after requiring a worker at a county-run nursing home to get a flu shot — an action she said is against her religious beliefs.

Christian Post reported Wednesday that nursing assistant Barnell Williams, who worked Lasata Care Center in a town roughly 26 miles north of Milwaukee, spoke with her highest-ranking supervisor about getting a religious exemption for a policy requiring employees to get flu shots.

Under the nursing home’s then policy,” the Christian Post noted, “an employee’s failure to receive the mandatory shot without a formal religious or medical exemption, was deemed a ‘voluntary resignation.'”

Based on her interpretation of the Bible, Williams told Campus Administrator Ralph Luedtke it was her “sincerely held Christian beliefs” that she could not put “certain foreign substances, including vaccinations, in her body because it is a ‘Holy Temple.'”

The administrator told Williams she’d need a signed letter from her pastor attesting to that belief, and when she explained that she was unaffiliated with any church, Luedtke gave her an ultimatum — get the shot or “consider this your last day.”

Williams acquiesced and got the shot, but immediately “became emotionally distraught and cried uncontrollably” in the aftermath, the DOJ’s lawsuit claims.

more
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/trumps-doj-goes-wisconsin-county-pushing-nurse-assistant-get-flu-shot-sincerely-held-christian-belief/

[rurallib]

1. if they don't kill us all in a nuclear war the back up plan seems to be plagues

spread by religious crazies who refuse to get vaccinated.

The back up to that is climatic disasters caused by global warming.

Our government under Republicans ensuring our safety.

[gratuitous]

2. The Justice Department has clearly not thought this through

If an individual can claim a religious exemption without membership in a religious organization, there is no end to the mischief that people will seek to put beyond the reach of the law, civic obligation, or plain common sense. I hope the judge bounces this bullshit out of the court so hard it lands in Lake Huron.

[handmade34]

4. yes and

further on this case, "membership in a religious organization" should have no relevance as this is about the safety and well being of people in this nurse's care...

Republican 'leadership' is going to kill us all

[Fred Sanders]

5. Then I want every hospital or place anyone works and has a religious exemption to post a big sign:

Caution, employees may not all be vaccinated against measles, polio, flu etc. Enter at your own risk.

[d_r]

6. I was thinking

about all my sincerely and deeply held religious beliefs!

[Ms. Toad]

13. Membership in a religious organization is NOT a constitutional requirement

for a free exercise of religion claim. Insisting on membership in a religious organization as a first amendment litmus test would be worse. There were many conscientious objectors during the Vietnam (and other) wars who held religious beliefs that prohibited participation in the military - but who were not members of a specific religion. It was challenging enough to obtain CO status because of the suspicion of people who were not formally affiliated with one of the peace churches; demanding formal membership would be worse.

That said, generally applicable laws that don't target religious beliefs are typically enforceable.

[Drahthaardogs]

19. Think emotional support peacock on an airplane

We already have the template

[Gothmog]

3. Trump is an anti-vaxer

In other words, trump is an idiot

[VMA131Marine]

7. An adult has a right not to get vaccinated, they don't have a right to a specific job

Especially when one of the rational requirements of the job is in conflict with their beliefs. Healthcare workers need to get vaccinated for what I think are obvious reasons. If a person is not on board with that they need to find a different line of work that is not in conflict with their beliefs.

That said, the County is going to lose this case because they tried to make a distinction between belonging to a church or not to determine if the beliefs are sincerely held. There should have been no exemption at all.

[MiniMe]

10. Thats what I say about pharmacists

The ones who won't fill birth control prescriptions or the morning after pill, if you can't do your job, which is not to be a doctor, then find another line of work

[Freethinker65]

8. Outrageously dangerous.

Did this "nursing assistant" have any previous training or certification?

Putting an entire nursing home, with many immunosurpressed and elderly patients, at risk to appease some unqualified science-denier is a preventable insane public health nightmare.

[flotsam]

11. The plural of anecdote is not data.

You may change your mind if your flu progresses to pneumonia and cardiac conditions. That's when my position changed...

[Ms. Toad]

17. Although it sounds nice, that statement is actually nonsense.

Pretty much all data that relies on human reporting is a collection of anecdotes (i.e. plural anecdotes).

As relevant to this discussion, all of the data on potential vaccine side effects consists of anecdotes - dutifully reported to the doctor who gave the vaccination or the CDC, them compiled. Any retroactive study (smoking in relation to cancer, for example) relies on plural anecdotes about how many packs a day one smoked years before one got cancer. The mood information gathered by the Mass General doctors in the study my daughter participated in to assess quality of life changes in response to the test drug consisted of a collection of anecdotes about how she felt on a particular day.

The value of such data is certainly up for potential criticism - the data set (number of anecdotes) may be too small, too distant (gathered years after the fact), unreliably gathered (the sampling was not random), etc. But a cute saying that the plural of anecdote is not data doesn't actually make it "not data."

[Raven]

14. I get a flu shot every year and I have never gotten the flu. I

am 72 and have some respiratory problems. People who haven't received a flu shot are not welcome around me.

[karynnj]

15. Your own statement backs getting the shot

You are getting the flu 25 to 33 percent of the years. The average yearly protection would make that rate unlikely.

The flu has been deadly this year, especially for the elderly and children. How would you feel if you got the flu and survived because of your strong health, but you knew it was possible that YOU were the one that gave it to someone around you who was less healthy and they either died or suffered life changing consequences?

One reasons vaccines cut the number of people that get the disease is because enough people have been vaccinated that epidemics don't happen. This is often called herd immunity.

[maxrandb]

21. Well, if they're a Retrumplican

their response to causing an innocent unnecessary pain, suffering and even death, would be; "sucks to be you".

For example, you can see Retrumplicans response to:

- Sensible Gun Control
- ICE raids at the elementary school
- DACA
- Trade Wars

and most especially...their vote and support for Donnie "Fucking" Short Fingers

Deplorable is too nice a fucking word to use for these utter pricks and assholes. Hopefully, this sick, demented, "waste of human skin" would only get "like minded" Donnie Dick Suckers sick.

[longship]

12. If you work in healthcare, you get vaccinated. Period!!!

It should be a condition of employment.

No vaccination? No job!

[Hekate]

16. A county-run nursing home is by definition full of frail old people, prime targets for death by flu

...and death by pneumonia that comes after the flu.

If the nursing assistant's "sincerely held Christian beliefs" forbid her from performing the essential requirements of her job, she should have to find a new job.

She can "cry uncontrollably" all she wants -- she can also stay home and kill her own grandparents by infecting them with a preventable disease. She's an idiot.

The idea that the DOJ is taking her side is disgusting beyond words.

[struggle4progress]

18. Flu: the GOP health plan for Americans in nursing homes!

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Um, Gonna Need Some Help About The "Holy Temple" Thing

If the body is a "holy temple" wouldn't that belief impel one to get the shot in order to properly maintain that temple?

Just hoping you won't get sick is consistent with "holy temple", how?