Employment

Jury fines BlueCross for firing worker over COVID-19 vaccine mandate | Chattanooga Times Free Press

A Tennessee jury has awarded a former research scientist at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee $687,000 in back pay and damages after she was fired in 2021 for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Following a three-day jury trial in Chattanooga last week, a federal jury decided BlueCross failed to provide reasonable accommodation for Tanja Benton, who did most of her work from home and claimed a religious exemption to the company's vaccine mandate.

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How to protect yourself during a heat wave if you can't stay indoors FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) — It’s hot and getting hotter for workers and everyone else outdoors as the first significant heat wave of the year makes its way eastward across the United States. More than 70 million people were under extreme heat alerts Monday. What's more, the heat will move in and sit. Excessive humidity will make it feel even more oppressive. “The duration of this heat wave is notable and potentially the longest experienced PBS NewsHour

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COVID may have eroded doctors' belief that they are obligated to treat infectious patients A systematic review posted in Clinical Infectious Diseases reveals that, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many physicians felt less ethically obligated to provide care to infectious-disease patients if they fear contracting the disease. CIDRAP

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