HOUSTON: A hospital in the US has been sued by over 100 staffers for turning them into COVID-19 vaccine guinea pigs by mandating them to get the shot.
The plaintiffs filed suit against Houston Methodist Hospital Friday, the latest group of workers to challenge mandatory inoculations at essential workplaces.
Attorney Jared Woodfill said he is representing 117 workers.
The lawsuit states that for the first time in US history, an employer is forcing its employees to be vaccinated with an experimental COVID-19 mRNA gene modification injection or be fired.
The lawsuit cited that the US Food and Drug Administration issued its first emergency use authorization for COVID-19 in December 2020, but the vaccines are awaiting full FDA approval and licensing, which will likely take months for the agency to review additional data.
The complaint cited that forcing employees to get the vaccine violates Nuremberg Code, a medical ethics code that bans forced medical experiments and mandates voluntary consent.
Methodist Hospital is forcing its employees to be human 'guinea pigs' as a condition for continued employment, the lawsuit states.
Woodfill said that employees should have freedom of choice to take the vaccine without force, deceit, fraud, threat, solicitation, or any type of binding or coercion."
Hospital CEO Dr Marc Boom sent out a letter in April to staffers announcing that employees have to be vaccinated by June 7.
"Please see the HR policy that outlines the consequences of not being compliant by June 7, which include suspension and eventually termination," the letter, which was included in the lawsuit, stated.
Woodfill told ABC News that Houston Methodist is forcing employees to get the shot to boost the hospital's profits.
The lawsuit says forcing the plaintiffs to take the vaccine violates public policy in Texas and requests a temporary injunction to prevent the hospital from terminating employees for refusing to get a vaccine shot.