[Judge David Hurd Photo: Mail Online]
A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction against New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.
This is after a group of 17 Christian medical professionals, protested in a lawsuit that the mandate violated their religious freedom by not allowing employers to consider religious exemptions.
US District Judge David Hurd issued a new order blocking the New York health department from rejecting employer approved religious exemptions, to the vaccine mandate enacted on 26th of August 2021.
“The department of health is barred from taking any action, disciplinary or otherwise, against the licensure, certification, residency, admitting privileges or other professional status or qualification of any of the plaintiffs. On account of their seeking or having obtained a religious exemption from mandatory covid-19 vaccination,” ruled Judge Hurd.
The vaccine mandate dictated that more than 600,000 workers in public and private hospitals throughout the state, receive their first dose of a vaccine by midnight 26th september to continue working the following day.
Meanwhile, some U.S. pastors and advocacy groups say they are against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
First Harvest Ministries in Waveland Mississippi Shane Vaughn has helped spearhead an online movement promoting personal faith as a way around workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
This comes as the Biden administration prepares a federal vaccine mandate and more states and companies impose them to help accelerate the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Pastor Vaughn posts form letters for U.S. workers seeking religious exemptions that have been downloaded from his website around 40,000 times.
He says so far more than 100 letters have been sent to companies including United Airlines Holdings Inc and Tyson Foods Inc, vowing litigation for improperly reject religious exemption requests.