by
A federal jury in Detroit on Friday awarded $12.69 million to Lisa Domski, a 32-year employee of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, who was fired in January 2022 for defying company policy and refusing to get the Covid vaccine because of religious reasons.
The jury found Blue Cross discriminated against Lisa Domski, of Wyandotte, who is Catholic, by denying her an exemption based on religious beliefs, reports JC Rendl of the Detroit Free Press, who writes that its the first of its kind case in Michigan.
Domski worked in IT at the time of her firing.
The Freep reports:
Domski had sought a religious exemption out of her belief that the three COVID-19 vaccines in wide use at the time — by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — were all either developed or tested using fetal cells that originated in abortion, and she thought it would be a sin to inject her body with such a vaccine because abortion is wrong.
Blue Cross may appeal the verdict.
In a statement, it said:
"Throughout the pandemic, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, together with its employees, worked to promote the health and safety of our colleagues, stakeholders, and communities."
"As part of that shared work, in October 2021, Blue Cross, and its subsidiaries, enacted a vaccine policy requiring all of its employees to be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 or obtain a religious or medical accommodation."
"In implementing the vaccine policy, Blue Cross designed an accommodation process that complied with state and federal law and respected the sincerely held religious beliefs of its employees. While Blue Cross respects the jury process and thanks the individual jurors for their service, we are disappointed in the verdict. Blue Cross is reviewing its legal options and will determine its path forward in the coming days."
