Vaccine Mandate: New York County's Chief Medical Examiner Refuses To Get COVID-19 Vaccine; Human Bodies Subject of Autopsies Relocated To Another Hospital

After its chief medical examiner allegedly declined to get vaccinated against COVID, a New York county is moving autopsies to another hospital.

Chief Medical Examiner Refused To Get COVID-19 Vaccine

In a recently published article in Newsweek, on August 28, the state issued an order mandating hospital and nursing home employees to get at least the first dose of the COVID vaccination by September 27. Different groups both accepted and chastised the mandate.

On Friday, officials with Rensselaer County stated that Dr. Michael Sikirica had refused the vaccination, requiring the county to transfer the corpses to a different hospital than usual. Officials, prosecutors, and police officers will now have to go to Glens Falls Hospital, which is approximately 50 miles away, rather than Albany Medical Center, which is considerably closer.

Sikirica conducts autopsies for the county at Albany Medical Center while not being employed there. He's also done autopsies in the counties of Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington. In murder cases, prosecutors depend on him to describe the manner in which homicide victims died, according to a published article in MSN News.

Albany Medical Center Did Not Give Any Comments

Sikirica is not conducting autopsies in Albany, according to Rensselaer County spokesperson Richard Crist. Crist said that the county does 100 to 120 autopsies each year.

The Albany Medical Center and Rensselaer County were approached for comment, but they received no answer at the time of publishing. "Consistent with our policy, doctors who do offer services on our site must be vaccinated," Glens Falls Hospital spokesman Matt Markham said, according to a published article in OLXPraca.

Healthcare Workers Prompted Legal Actions Against the Vaccine Mandate

The state's vaccination requirement for healthcare employees has led several physicians and nurses to sue the state. Last month, a group of 17 healthcare professionals sued the state, alleging that the state had violated their constitutional rights by denying them religious exemptions from the vaccination requirement.

The lawsuit stated that the same front-line healthcare workers who were hailed as heroes by the media for treating COVID patients before vaccines were available, including the Plaintiffs, in this case, are now vilified by the same press as pariahs who must be kept out of society until they are forced to be vaccinated against their will.

Judge David Hurd issued an order in response to the complaint, temporarily prohibiting New York from implementing the vaccination requirement and giving the state until September 22 to reply to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Utica. Hurd postponed oral arguments later in September and prolonged the interim halt until October 12.

Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers in Some Hospitals

Tom Quatroche, president and chief executive officer of the medical center, said they support the state's vaccine mandate. However, they also admitted that they need more time to strategize on addressing the effects and reality of requiring their healthcare workers to get at least one dose of the vaccine.

Administrators placed one-fifth of the corporation's long-term care facility employees on unpaid leave after New York's vaccination requirement went into effect last week, workers who risked their jobs rather than get vaccinated.