Heart Surgeon’s Suit Trimmed Over Firing for Covid Vax Refusal

A Philadelphia-area cardiac surgeon can pursue a claim that his request for a medical exemption from his employer’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate caused his firing, but he must try again with his disability bias and breach-of-contract claims.

The ruling Monday by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania partly relied on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Covid-19 guidance under the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to the EEOC, whether Covid is a disability must be assessed on a case-by-case basis, but someone whose medical condition isn’t substantially limited by the virus generally doesn’t qualify for ADA coverage, the ...