N.Y. Vaccine Mandate Appeal Delayed as Hospitals Seek Clarity

New York hospitals and other medical facilities will have to wait a little longer for legal clarity on a Covid-19 vaccine mandate covering health care workers in the state.

The federal appeals court in Manhattan on Wednesday delayed oral arguments in a case in which three workers and a nonprofit group sued New York Governor Kathy Hochul. In the lawsuit, filed last month, the workers claim their faith prevents them from taking any of the three major vaccines in the U.S. They say the drug companies that produced them used a cell line harvested from aborted fetuses in the 1970s and 1980s.

Read More: N.Y. Vaccine Mandates Get Flurry of Rulings in Court Fights

The court noted that a judge in Utica, New York, on Tuesday extended an order temporarily barring the state from enforcing the mandate against workers who claim religious exemptions. The move signals that the court may wish to consider appeals in both cases at the same time. The arguments had been scheduled for Thursday; the court didn’t set a new date.

The case is We The Patriots USA, Inc. v. Hochul, 21-cv-04954, Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Katia Porzecanski at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net

Peter Jeffrey

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