The president of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium told a worker that the Native medical system in Alaska will not be honoring religious exemptions from having to take a Covid-19 vaccine because the system is tribally sovereign and is not covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In a letter to an employee who asked for the exemption, Davidson wrote that “Federal courts have found that mandating the COVID-19 vaccine is neither unconstitutional nor a violation of federal law and have dismissed lawsuits against employers who have mandated vaccination.”
Davidson wrote that “because ANTHC, as a tribal organization, is not subject to the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” the medical providers in the consortium may grant medical exemptions but not religious exemptions.
She also wrote that “Requiring COVID-19 vaccination does not violate the Nuremberg Code because the vaccines aren’t experimental. All the vaccines that are fully approved or approved for emergency use in the United States have already gone through clinical trials,” she said.
Davidson said that, so far as she knows, the Federal Employee Health benefit program that employees are signed up for will cover workers who suffer negative effects from the Covid-19 vaccinations. She said employees who suffer adverse reactions could apply to the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program at https://www.hrsa.gov/cicp/about.
ANTHC co-manages the Alaska Native Medical Center with Southcentral Foundation. ANMC is a 150-bed facility with a staff of 250 physicians and 700 nurses, according to Wikipedia. It is also a level II trauma center. Davidson became president of the consortium this year. She previously was the commissioner of the Department of Health and Social Services under Bill Walker, and became lieutenant governor briefly after Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott suddenly resigned. She is an Alaska Native from Bethel.
