Clerk at Roslindale health center wants $6 million for getting fired after she refused Covid-19 shots

A billing clerk at the Greater Roslindale Medical and Dental Center today sued Boston Medical Center, with which the Roslindale facility is affiliated, for firing her in 2021 after she refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

In her suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Karen Mastro alleges she was fired for her "sincerely held religious beliefs" after the center would not let her continue to work remotely and rejected her offer to wear a mask get regular Covid-19 testing if she did have to go into work at the facility, on Taft Hill Terrace in Roslindale Square.

Also, her suit charges, the vaccinations suck and don't work.

Mastro, who had worked at the Roslindale health center since 1988, alleges that after she refused to get a shot, was fired and then appealed to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the health center post-dated her job description to say she was responsible for training other workers and so would have face-to-face encounters when, in fact, training was not part of her job up until the day she was fired, on Oct. 21, 2021. She says she had done her job remotely just fine - and that other clerks who did get their shots were allowed to keep working remotely.

Also, the suit says, unlike Boston Medical Center, Greater Roslindale is "NOT an in-patient, healthcare facility."

Her suit alleges she is due $5 million in compensatory damages for the alleged violations of various constitutional rights, including due process and equal treatment, plus $1 million to punish Boston Medical Center for what they did.

She is represented by Richard Chambers of Lynn, who has spent a good part of the last two years filing anti-vaccine suits against a variety of hospitals and the city of Boston.

In August, a federal judge dismissed part of a suit he filed on behalf of 20 employees at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and related institutions who were fired for refusing to get shots, ruling the hospitals had the right to fire the workers, but letting them continue the part of their suit that alleged the hospital violated their rights to engage in protests against the shots.

In January, another federal judge dismissed a suit Chambers brought against Boston over its two-month vaccine requirement for admission to certain indoor venues - in which he also sought $6 million for each plaintiff, who included two Boston cops, a current at-large City Council candidate and a North End restaurant owner.

Chambers filed a separate suit in Suffolk court for one of the two cops over his refusal to get vaccinated, which remains open.

In June, the restaurant owner and three other North End restaurant owners quietly dropped the suit filed in federal court by Chambers against the city's decision to charge North End restaurants a fee to put patios on public sidewalks and streets in what the owners claimed was hatred of white Italian men by Mayor Wu.

Disclosure: I have gotten my primary healthcare at Greater Roslindale for several years, although they've never consulted me about their Covid-19 policies or, for that matter, anything else not directly related to my personal health.