Workers Fired for Refusing COVID Shot Receive $4.25 Million Payout
On May 18, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that A G Equipment Company, (AG) a compressor packaging manufacturer in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, will pay $4.25 million to 43 former employees to settle a religious and disability discrimination lawsuit.1 2 In the fall of 2021, A G mandated that all employees receive […]
Study Finds All Major Pharmaceutical Companies Implicated in Bribery Schemes
A study published in February 2026 in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics is the first to compile decades of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) enforcement records into a single analysis. Researchers Kohler, Khan, and Bowra reviewed OECD Working Group on Bribery reports from 1999 through early 2025 and found that virtually […]
Tech Company Agrees to $15 Million Settlement in COVID-19 Shot Bias Claim
An unidentified technology company has agreed to pay $15 million to resolve a federal investigation into alleged discrimination tied to COVID-19 shot exemption requests, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The matter was investigated by the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office and focused on the company’s handling of employee requests for religious accommodation during […]
U.K. Health Officials Call for Banning Schoolchildren Without Proof of MMR Vaccination
Health officials in London, England are calling for children who have not received MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) shots to be banned from attending schools in the United Kingdom as measles cases continue to rise. Emma Best, chairwoman of the London Assembly Health Committee, said students who can’t show proof they have gotten the MMR vaccine […]
Guinea-Bissau Hepatitis B Vaccine Trial in Newborns Sparks Ethics Debate
The World Health Organization (WHO) and some members of the U.S. Congress have raised ethical concerns about a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded clinical trial examining the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns in Guinea-Bissau.1 The study would support a randomized controlled trial led by researchers at the University of Southern Denmark […]
Novartis Settles With Estate of Henrietta Lacks Over Stolen Cervical Cancer Cells
Novartis has reached a settlement with the estate of Henrietta Lacks over the use of the HeLa cell line, a line of human cells derived from tissue removed from Lacks during medical treatment for cervical cancer without her knowledge or consent. Terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed.1 The settlement resolves claims that pharmaceutical […]