Boston’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city workers was legal, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled on March 30.
The city’s claim that COVID-19 could not adequately be combated without vaccination outweighed the risk of irreparable harm to workers who were facing termination, Justice Elspeth Cypher wrote in the ruling.
“The potential harm to the city and the public resulting from the spread of COVID-19 clearly outweighed the economic harm to the employees,” Cypher said.
The city’s 2021 mandate initially required proof of vaccination or weekly testing, but weekly testing was cut out after the emergence of the Omicron variant. That prompted a challenge from unions, which said the city had not properly negotiated the update….