Oregon Governor Kate Brown is mandating the COVID vaccine by October 18. Natural immunity is the reason six government employees in Oregon, with the help of the Freedom Foundation, are suing Governor Kate Brown. They say they should not be terminated based on their vaccine status, particularly because they all have acquired natural immunity from contracting and recovering from COVID.
On August 13, Brown posted an Executive Order requiring workers and employees of the executive branch to be vaccinated by Oct. 18. On August 19, the Governor announced two vaccine mandates; one for health care workers and the other for teachers and other adults in schools:
"Oregon’s vaccination requirement for health care workers will no longer have a testing alternative. Health care workers will be required to be fully vaccinated by October 18 or six weeks after full FDA approval, whichever is later.
All teachers, educators, support staff, and volunteers in K-12 schools will be required to be fully vaccinated by October 18 or six weeks after full FDA approval, whichever is later."
According to Jason Dudash and the lawsuit itself, the Oregon Director for the Freedom Foundation, all six plaintiffs have recovered from COVID and believe their continued employment should not be contingent upon vaccine status. UncoverDC spoke with him on Monday. Jason explained:
"There is very supportive science right now that says that natural immunity or acquired immunity through previous infection is just as—if not better than—vaccinated immunity, and there's really no reason that these people should be facing termination right now."
Citing multiple news articles and peer-reviewed studies, the lawsuit speaks to natural immunity as robust protection from future infection and spread of the virus. Additionally, the complaint cites the danger of "vaccinating a person who has been recently or concurrently infected" with a virus:
"It is a fundamental principle of immunology that 'vaccinating a person who is recently or concurrently infected can reactivate, or exacerbate, a harmful inflammatory response to a virus.' This applies to SARS-CoV-2 just as it does to viruses such as shingles. Homman Noorchashm, The Recently Infected and Already Immune DO NOT Benefit from COVID-19 Vaccination, MEDIUM.COM (Jun 1, 2021), ."
Coercion is another key reason the plaintiffs seek relief:
"Coercing employees to receive a vaccine for a virus that presents a near-zero risk of illness or death to them and which they are exceedingly unlikely to pass on to others because those employees already possess natural immunity to the virus, violates Plaintiffs’ liberty and privacy interests that the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments protect."
"When a state policy implicates a fundamental right, through coercion or otherwise, the strict scrutiny standard applies, and law will not be upheld unless the government demonstrates that the law is necessary to further a compelling governmental interest and has been narrowly tailored to achieve that interest."
Rebekah Millard, the Freedom Foundation lawyer representing the six employees, states the following in a Sept. 10 press release:
“The state compelling private individuals to submit to any medical procedure against their will is outrageous enough,” said Rebekah Millard, litigation counsel for the Freedom Foundation, which is representing the plaintiffs. “Imposing a one-size-fits-all mandate on people who not only don’t need the vaccine but would have an elevated chance of experiencing serious side effects if they take it shows conclusively the state’s actions are steeped in partisan politics; rather than hard science.”
The plaintiffs, from all walks of life, are listed per the screenshot below:
Oregon Case/Vaccine Mandates
Dudash explained what he feels is the non-sensical nature of the mandate:
"The governor should have a vested interest in trying to fire the fewest number of people right now. You know you look at our education system—which has been a laughingstock for decades but is now completely in shambles over the last year and a half with what it's done to our children. You look at our health care system, which is currently in crisis and have people in Southern Oregon, particularly, dying in the hallway waiting for a hospital bed. Nobody is arguing that that's not happening. But for some reason, the governor is pushing a policy that's going to take thousands if not tens of thousands of nursing staff and education staff out of those two systems. To me, it is not even a serious consideration."
