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Author: Richard Jaffe

Can My Employer Make Me Wear a Mask at Work, and What if I have a Medical Condition Which Makes Wearing a Mask Dangerous to Me?

Can My Employer Make Me Wear a Mask at Work, and What if I have a Medical Condition Which Makes Wearing a Mask Dangerous to Me?

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This is a popular question these days, so let me lay out the law as I understand it. Actually, the basic law is pretty straightforward. Mostly what I will do is quote from the federal government’s EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) web site which deals with employment discrimination issues. And yes, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) does come into play in the analysis. Here is the URL for the EEOC document I am quoting from: https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/pandemic-preparedness-workplace-and-americans-disabilities-act. It contains much…

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Digging into the Moderna Vaccine Clinical Trials Protocols and Results

Digging into the Moderna Vaccine Clinical Trials Protocols and Results

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Moderna has just announced that its RNA based vaccine is starting a phase 3 clinical trial with 30,000 subjects, so I thought it might be useful to take a look at the publicly available information about the trial, and how they got there. Let’s go logically and chronologically and start with the phase 1 safety study. The Phase 1 study A phase 1 study is a safety study. They usually have relatively few subjects, and different doses are given because…

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The Kennedy-Dershowitz Debate: Must See TV!

The Kennedy-Dershowitz Debate: Must See TV!

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A few days ago, the Bobby Kennedy/Alan Dershowitz debate was released. As a lawyer involved in the vaccine issue, it was very heartening to see such a high quality debate on the subject. It was very enjoyable to watch these two extremely smart, deep thinkers talk about these issues with open mindedness, clarity and mutual respect for each other, and for the opinions of the other with which they did not agree. I can’t personally recall anything like this ever…

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The Texas GOP’s Right to Have a Live, In-Person Convention in Houston; It’s a real head-scratcher.

The Texas GOP’s Right to Have a Live, In-Person Convention in Houston; It’s a real head-scratcher.

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At the beginning of last week, a prominent Houston physician and highly influential Republican big-wig, Steven Hotze, filed an amended complaint and a request for emergency complaint against Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to overturn the Mayor’s decision stopping the GOP’s state convention from taking place live in the convention center. The basis of the lawsuit was that the Mayor violated the free speech and assembly rights of the GOP conventioneers. Initially, the rub was that the state GOP had elected…

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Stem Cell Breaking News: Cali Stem Cell Trial Adjourned until Sometime After November

Stem Cell Breaking News: Cali Stem Cell Trial Adjourned until Sometime After November

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Yesterday, California federal district court judge Jesus G. Bernal on his own adjourned the the FDA’s trial against Cell Surgical Network (“CSN”) and their owners Mark Berman and Elliot Lander. The parties were ordered to meet and confer about a new trial date to take place after November, 2020. The trial had been scheduled to commence on July 28th. Because of my deep interest in the case, I have been checking the Riverside Ca. Covid-19 numbers and once the numbers…

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BREAKING NEWS: NY Federal Court Enjoins NYC and State from enforcing unequal religious indoor gatherings and all outdoor gathering laws!

BREAKING NEWS: NY Federal Court Enjoins NYC and State from enforcing unequal religious indoor gatherings and all outdoor gathering laws!

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This morning, Albany federal district judge Gary I. Sharpe issued a preliminary injunction against New York City and New York State from enforcing restrictions specific to religious gatherings, both indoors and outdoors. For indoor gatherings, the judge basically held that the defendants could only enforce restrictions imposed for Phase 2 businesses. (“Phase 2 allows a wide range of businesses to reopen, including most office-based businesses, administrative services, commercial building management, real estate services, and repair and cleaning services.” (from https://www.natlawreview.com/article/new-york-state-releases-reopening-guidance-phase-2-businesses)…

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HOW IT’S DONE

HOW IT’S DONE

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Yesterday, I did a post about possible legal and other challenges if there is a mask requirement for students when school reopens. My bottom line was that I didn’t think a legal challenge would be successful, and advised activism as the way to influence the decision-making process by county or state officials. I do not think it is realistic to try to force young children to wear a mask for the whole school day. (For what it’s worth, I think…

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Will my child’s California permanent medical exemption be valid next year if she changes schools?

Will my child’s California permanent medical exemption be valid next year if she changes schools?

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I answered that question a few times in other posts dealing with medical exemptions and their future viability in general. However, I figure it is time to do a post specifically on this question, so here goes: The Law (and the good news) There is nothing in current California law (and that would be SB 276/714) which states or implies that switching schools within a grade span causes an otherwise valid SB 277 grandfathered medical exemption to become invalid. The…

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What to do about all this talk about students having to wear masks when school reopens

What to do about all this talk about students having to wear masks when school reopens

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From New Jersey to California, there is talk from public health and school officials that if school reopens in the fall, students will be required to wear masks. Many parents do not like the idea of their kids wearing masks all day, for health reasons. The question is what can you do about? My short, (and probably not entirely satisfying) answer is that it’s about activism, because you should not expect any help from the courts on this issue. As…

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Foolish mandatory vaccination talk from the New York State Bar Association

Foolish mandatory vaccination talk from the New York State Bar Association

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Circulating on social media is a recently published draft task force report from the New York State Bar Association, Health Law section. Like social media is saying, these New York health lawyers are proposing a State bar position in favor of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, and specifically: “when the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine has been confirmed, enact legislation requiring vaccination of each person unless the person’s physician deems vaccination for his or her patient to be clinically inappropriate.” See page…

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