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Judge dismisses lawsuit from Boston Medical Center nurse fired for refusing COVID vaccine

Judge Richard Stearns ruled that Maureen McCarthy failed to show how her conviction relates to her religion.

A dose of a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is prepared, Nov. 4, 2021. Sholten Singer/The Herald-Dispatch via AP, File

January 18, 2024

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A U.S. District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit against Boston Medical Center Wednesday from a nurse fired for refusing to get the COVID vaccination, court document show.

District Judge Richard Stearns ruled that nurse Maureen McCarthy failed to show how her conviction relates to her religion. Her filed complaint against BMC questioned the vaccine’s effectiveness and included multiple examples of public figures who tested positive for COVID after receiving the vaccination.

“The Complaint itself is devoid of any explanation of McCarthy’s beliefs, let alone how they are religious in nature,” Stearns wrote. “Instead, the cited basis for McCarthy’s opposition to vaccination appears to be the dictates of her own conscience, which she maintains that her religion requires her to follow.”

According to court documents, McCarthy worked as a staff nurse for more than 20 years at BMC. She filed for exemption from the hospital’s vaccination requirement in September 2021 based on religious beliefs. She was fired the next month for failing to comply, court documents filed in 2022 show.

McCarthy’s original exemption request said her belief in the Bible prohibits her vaccination, court documents show.

“I believe that receiving this vaccine would be a violation of conscience as a Christian who believes in the Bible, specifically the King James version. I feel that this vaccine would violate the principles laid out in God’s word, I believe my body is a temple for the Holy Spirit,” she wrote.

McCarthy also wrote in the exemption request that “In spite of my sincerely held religious belief, I belong to no religious organization,” according to her filed complaint. Part of the hospital’s religious exemption filing included a space for a religious leader to explain how their faiths or beliefs are “contrary” to the vaccine. McCarty wrote “N/A.”

When contacted by Boston.com Thursday evening, McCarthy’s lawyer Peter Vickery said he had no comment.