Beth Israel nurse says hospital forced her to get a Covid-19 shot that made her sick, then fired her when she refused the second, so she sues

A long-time nurse at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center says she got the first of two required Covid-19 shots under pressure from hospital administrators - and with God's OK - then fell seriously ill, refused the second shot and was fired.

In a lawsuit filed today in Suffolk Superior Court, Catherine Morrill, 55, charges the hospital had no right to force her to get a second shot in spite of her Christian beliefs - and her reaction to her first Moderna shot - and is seeking at least $3 million in damages for the end of her 17-year BI career on July 21, 2022. She alleges the hospital concocted her firing - more than a year after the state formally ended its Covid-19 state of emergency - to deprive her of her retirement benefits.

In her complaint, filed by Lynnfield lawyer Richard Chambers, who has become a specialist in Boston-area Covid-19 lawsuits - Morrill says she got the first of two shots in August, 2021 (Ed. note: The complaint says "2022" but that does not fit in with her timeline, in part because she was fired in July, 2022) and came down with debilitating headaches that lasted for eight weeks, joint pain and rashes.

To this day, Morrill continues with aches in her joints and an exacerbation in her eczema.

The suit says Beth Israel then ignored Morrill's constitutional right to skip the shots, first for medical reasons, then for religious reasons:

Morrill is a devout Christian, and her religious beliefs are based on the Bible and her God-given natural immunity, as opposed to man-made, artificial immunity derived from Covid-19 vaccines. Morrill asserted to BILH in her request, that she went with God's faith to receive the first Covid-19 vaccine which caused her much physical harm and moving forward could not in good conscience allow any other vaccine into her body as she feels it goes directly against her teachings.

Morrill's complaint says she asked for a medical exemption based on her reaction to the first shot she got. The complaint says the hospital initially granted her a short exemption after her primary-care physician described her medical issues, but that the hospital then told her it had concluded her symptoms were not a reaction to the shot. It then refused her request for a religious exemption.

Both rejections were a violation of federal law because "Congress only has the authority to mandate a Vaccine Policy" and so the hospital "lacked the authority" to force employees to get the shots, especially of an "unlicensed vaccine product" - and to then reject her requests for exemptions - the complaint asserts.

In federal court, judges have recently dismissed two similar suits by Boston-area hospital employees with a similar religious claim, in part saying they failed to identify specific religious tenets that speak against vaccination. Federal judges have also pointed to a 1905 Supreme Court ruling involving a Cambridge minister and his sons during a smallpox outbreak that says public-health concerns can take precedence over other laws in a public-health emergency.

Morrill says her firing has seriously harmed her life:

As a result of her termination, Morrill suffered stress and turmoil in her life. The termination has denied her the ability to continue in a career that she loved and built for over 35 years. This termination made her feel like a second-class citizen that has no rights or benefits. It has caused her significant financial harm.

Complete complaint (1.8M PDF).