Catholic nurse with a possible allergy sues Boston Medical Center for firing her after she refused to get Covid-19 shots

A former RN at Boston Medical Center yesterday sued the hospital for firing her last year after she refused to comply with its requirement that all employees be vaccinated against Covid-19.

In her suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Laura Dyer of Arlington says her Oct. 15, 2021 firing violated her religious-freedom and due-process rights because she has "a sincerely held religious belief" against Covid-19 vaccination in particular and because the hospital refused to engage in "an interactive process in efforts to reasonably accommodate her religious beliefs that prohibit him from being injected with the products advertised as COVID-19 vaccines."

She says the hospital also discriminated against her under federal disability law by rejecting her argument that an adverse reaction to an earlier flu shot - "soreness, dizziness, shortness of breath" - indicates she might be allergic to polysorbate and polyethylene glycol and so was at particular risk from Covid-19 vaccines. The two substances are stabilizers that are commonly mixed with the active ingredients in vaccines.

Also, Covid-19 vaccines, just don't really work, she argues. At one point, the complaint refers to Pfizer's vaccine in quotation marks.

Dyer is represented by Amherst attorney Peter Vickery, who has filed similar suits on behalf of several other Boston Medical Center nurses in recent weeks. Unlike with his other clients, however, his filings in Dyer's case do not include a detailed description of her specific religious beliefs against Covid-19 vaccination.