Former General Hospital actor Ingo Rademacher has partnered with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to sue ABC after being fired over his refusal to comply with the network’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Rademacher was fired last month for refusing the vaccine after playing Jasper “Jax” Jacks on General Hospital for 25 years. He filed suit against ABC on Monday, claiming that the mandate was unconstitutional and that his firing amounted to religious discrimination, Variety reported. The network previously turned down the former soap star’s request for a religious exemption to the mandate.
Rademacher is being represented by John W. Howard, an attorney who has filed several other lawsuits opposing vaccine requirements, and anti-vaccine advocate and attorney Kennedy—a son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy who promoted discredited vaccine conspiracy theories long before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The suit reportedly argues that the network’s decision to require employees to take the vaccines, which studies have repeatedly shown are effective at limiting the spread of the virus and the severity of infections, was “a political issue.” Rademacher’s lawyers maintain that there “is no need for everybody to get the COVID-19 shot, even if the president demands it,” although ABC implemented its mandate as a private company prior to President Joe Biden‘s currently-stalled mandate going into effect.
Newsweek reached out to ABC for comment.
“I don’t agree with vaccine mandates,” Rademacher said in a video posted to Instagram on December 5. “I do not agree with corporations ever, ever being able to mandate a vaccine to keep your job, to keep your livelihood. And a lot of people were coerced and forced into taking the jab, otherwise, they would lose everything.”
Rademacher went on to urge his Instagram followers to “fight” what he described as an assault on “freedom of choice.” On the previous day, he warned followers that “liking” a picture of him posing with Kennedy could lead to them being targeted by “mob cancel culture.” Rademacher insisted that Kennedy, a noted advocate of the false claim that vaccines cause autism, was not “an anti-VAXer” but instead a “vaccine safety” advocate based on “overwhelming evidence of vaccine injury.”
Evidence does not support claims that currently authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines cause significant injuries, with severe adverse reactions being exceedingly rare despite baseless suggestions to the contrary made by some anti-vaccine advocates. Other vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are also not the cause of mass injury, although temporary side effects can occur. Rare reactions that can cause injury are a remote possibility with any vaccine.
General Hospital actor Steve Burton, who portrayed Jason Morgan over the course of 30 years, was fired from the show for refusing to comply with the vaccination requirement just weeks after Rademacher was dismissed.
In November, Rademacher also received backlash, including from at least one of his other General Hospital co-stars, for sharing a post referring to Assistant U.S. Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine, who is a transgender woman, as a “dude.” Rademacher later uploaded an Instagram video expressing regret for “not crossing out dude and putting transgender,” while maintaining that he did not “agree with” referring to Levin as a woman.
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