First US lawsuit filed over mandatory COVID vaccinations: New Mexico detention center worker SUES his employer after being told he'd be fired for refusing inoculation

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A detention center officer in New Mexico is suing his employer for threatening to fire him if he refused to receive a coronavirus vaccine. 

The lawsuit filed by Isaac Legaretta on Sunday marked America's first legal challenge on the issue of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations.  

The complaint alleges that the Doña Ana County Manager Fernando Macias and Legaretta's supervisor violated his rights by making the vaccine a condition of employment for first responders.   

'You can't be forced to be a human guinea pig when a product is experimental,' Legaretta's attorney Ana Garner, who works for the nonprofit New Mexico Stands Up!, told Bloomberg Law.

'We have the right to bodily integrity.'

Isaac Legaretta, a detention center officer in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, sued his employer for threatening to fire him if he refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine (file photo)

An attorney for the county responded to the suit by arguing that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) allow for employers to mandate vaccinations, except in select circumstances.  

Last March the EEOC issued a statement saying that employers covered by the American Disabilities Act and the Civil Rights Act cannot compel all employees to take a vaccine.  

Under those acts, employees could be exempt for certain health and religious reasons.  

However, the county attorney claimed that Legaretta hasn't presented evidence of having a qualifying condition exempting him from getting a vaccine.  

Macias first announced the vaccine mandate for all first responders - including police officers, detention center workers and anyone in contact with detainees - on January 29.   

'It is required that, if you have not already started your vaccinations, that you be vaccinated with your first dose on one of those days, or contact Human Resources for accommodation,' the county manager wrote in a memo. 

'Being vaccinated is a requirement and a condition of on-going employment with the County due to the significant health and safety risks posed by contracting or spreading COVID-19.'

Legaretta's complaint referenced another memo on February 17 in which the county told him he had five days to provide proof that he'd been vaccinated.  

The complaint asserted that Legaretta's superiors have threatened to fire him or write him up at work on multiple occasions in response to his refusal.  

His lawsuit seeks an injunction against termination or reinstatement if he is potentially fired. 

Pictured: The Doña Ana County Detention Center where Legaretta works

Ever since the vaccine rollout kicked off in December, experts have predicted an onslaught of lawsuits regarding whether an employer is allowed to dismiss an employee who refuses to get vaccinated and isn't protected by law. 

Many employment lawyers say the short answer to that question is yes.  

'The employer has the latitude under the EEOC to keep the workplace safe,' Jerry Maatman, an employment law attorney with Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago, told the Associated Press last month.

However, Maatman cautioned that while the EEOC has released guidelines about the vaccine, issues over employers' rights to dismiss staffers who don't comply would likely end up in court.  

'These rulings are going to take place in the second and third quarters,' he says.

Maatman said he advises businesses to seek legal or human resources advice before disciplining or dismissing employees over vaccinations, whether or not the staffers are in what's called a protected class.

Legal and HR experts also recommend employers create companywide policies on vaccinations, provide each staffer with a copy and explain to everyone why the shots are necessary. 

And owners should keep in mind that this is a subject that requires sensitivity and understanding - an overbearing approach can be a morale buster.

Joe Biden commented on the issue in December, saying he does not think the vaccine 'should be mandatory'.

'I wouldn't demand it to be mandatory,' the then-president-elect said. 'Just like I don’t think masks have to be made mandatory nationwide.' 

Since taking office in January, Biden has worked hard to increase the availability of vaccines after promising to administer 100 million per day in his first 100 days. 

As of Tuesday nearly 25 percent of the population has received at least one vaccine, and an average of 1.8 million people are being inoculated every day. 

As of Tuesday nearly 25 percent of the population has received at least one vaccine, and an average of 1.8 million people are being inoculated every day 

 

A THIRD of all military personnel are refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine with alarmed commanders aiming to make the shot mandatory 'as soon as possible' 

A third of all military personnel are refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, and in some units just 30 percent of enlistees are willing to have a shot, according to a new report.

The figure is alarming commanders as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the United States. 

Personnel who refuse the vaccine will face no repercussions due to a federal law that 'prohibits the mandatory application of medicines within the military that are not fully licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration', The Nation reports.

At present, the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines have only been granted 'emergency use authorizations' by the FDA.

But regulators and officials say the vaccines are safe and, in the case of the Moderna and Pfizer shots, at least 94% effective. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 66% effective in trials, but is a single shot rather than two.

While it could take years for the shots to become fully licensed by the federal agency, the military may make the vaccine mandatory once that happens. 

'Obviously, we're thinking about what happens when they become FDA-approved,' Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby stated on Monday.

'It would change the character of the decision-making process, about whether they could be mandatory or voluntary. But I don't want to get ahead of that process right now.' 

Some personnel are reluctant to receive the vaccine due to backlash from the military's rushed rollout of an anthrax vaccine back in the 1990s. 

In 1997, the government made it mandatory for personnel to receive the jab, but 'huge numbers of service members complained of debilitating side effects' and a lengthy legal battle ensued. 

One in three military members is refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new report in The Nation

In 2004, courts determined that the government had violated federal law by mandating the vaccine when it was revealed that the FDA hadn't 'adequately studied' how effective it was against the inhalation anthrax. 

Mandatory anthrax vaccinations resumed three years later following 'further testing and study'.   

Some young enlistees told The New York Times that that history has made them less inclined to receive the shot - even though it occurred almost a generation ago. 

'I would prefer not to be the one testing this vaccine,' one 24-year-old service woman told the publication. 

As The Nation reports, 'the government and military have nasty histories of experimenting on people, including service members, without their knowledge or consent'.

At the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, as little as 30 percent of personnel are accepting the vaccine.    

Brigadier General David Doyle told The Associated Press that a majority of troops are turning down the shot because they believe it has been rushed. 

'They tell me they don't have high confidence in the vaccine because they believe it was done too quickly,' he said. 

Other military members are refusing the jab because of misinformation and conspiracy theories. 

According to The Associated Press, one Marine last month refused to receive the vaccine because he believed it implanted a 'tracking device'. 

There is no merit to that theory. 

Military officials are hoping to speed up the authorization process in order to make it compulsory.     

'I can tell you we're probably going to make it mandatory as soon as we can, just like we do with the flu vaccine,' Vice Admiral Andrew Lewis, commander of the Navy's 2nd Fleet, told the Associated Press. 

In the meantime, however, they are focusing on messaging.

They concede they still do need to do a better job in debunking misinformation and making personnel feel less like they are experimental guinea pigs.  

There are about 1.3 million active-duty troops, according to The Washington Post. 

As of mid-February, just 150,000 had received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Still, at around 12 percent, that number is higher than the general population. 

As of Wednesday, around 25.5 million Americans have been fully vaccinated - about seven percent of the population.  

- Reporting by Andrew Court for DailyMail.com -