A federal judge Tuesday blocked New York state from mandating healthcare workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Prior to his resignation in August, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the mandate, prompting more than a dozen healthcare professionals to request a court enjoinder, per Just the News.
The vaccine mandate requires hospital staff and employees of long-term care facilities to be vaccinated in order to continue working.
The lawsuit argues that the 17 medical professionals have religious beliefs which compel them to "refuse vaccination with the available Covid-19 vaccines, all of which employ aborted fetus cell lines in their testing, development, or production."
Indeed, Judge David Hurd of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York granted the temporary halt Tuesday morning.
"The vaccine mandate is suspended," his order reads. The state 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 plaintiffs on account of their seeking or having obtained a religious exemption from mandatory Covid-19 vaccination."
