Judge Dismisses $25 Million Defamation Lawsuit Against 1st Hospital to Impose COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Doctor says she plans to appeal

The exterior of the Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas on June 9, 2021. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

A judge in Texas has dismissed a lawsuit that was filed against the first hospital in the United States to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Dr. Mary Bowden filed the suit against Houston Methodist, alleging that the system defamed her by calling her opinions about the COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 treatments “harmful to the community” and that Bowden was “spreading dangerous misinformation.”

Houston Methodist asked the court to toss the litigation.

Harris County Judge Mike Engelhart agreed and dismissed the suit on Jan. 31, according to the court docket.

“We can now put this behind us and continue our focus on our patients, employees and community,” Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom said in a statement to news outlets.

“As health care workers, we have a sacred oath to ‘do no harm,’ and part of that oath means doing everything possible to prevent the spread of misinformation that is harmful to our community,” he added.

Bowden, who had asked for $25 million in damages, vowed to appeal the ruling.

She warned doctors via Twitter that the ruling means “any hospital can now disagree with your medical views, launch a worldwide PR campaign to cast you as dangerous, and walk away with no consequences.”

“We will most certainly appeal and resolve this in a fair court,” she also said.

Public Statements

The suit was triggered by public statements by Houston Methodist, which said that Bowden was offering opinions that “are harmful to the community” and “do not reflect reliable medical evidence or the values of Houston Methodist.”

The system also claimed that Bowden “is spreading dangerous misinformation which is not based in science.”

Boom, the CEO, made similar claims during a television appearance.

Bowden had described prescribing ivermectin to patients and said her experience was the medicine treated COVID-19.

She also grew suspicious of the COVID-19 vaccines after being presented with many fully vaccinated patients.

The statements were defamatory because Bowden “published true facts with a scientific basis” and never offered misinformation, according to the suit.

Bowden resigned from Houston Methodist shortly after the system’s statements were made.

First Mandate

Houston Methodist announced its mandate on April 1, 2021. More than 150 workers were either fired or quit over a refusal to get vaccinated.

“I know we can count on you to help protect our patients and the community. It is our duty as health care professionals to do no harm and protect the safety of all of us—our colleagues, our patients and our society,” Dr. Rob Phillips, Houston Methodist’s chief physician executive, said at the time.

The vaccines do not prevent transmission of COVID-19 and have performed increasingly worse against the illness as newer variants have emerged.

Nearly half of the COVID-19 hospitalizations the hospital reported in late 2021 were vaccinated, researchers with the system and other institutions found.

The system faced staffing shortages in 2022 despite the mandate.

After booster shots were cleared in the United States due to waning vaccine effectiveness, Houston Methodist mandated boosters for its staffers.

But the system chose not to mandate updated booster shots that were authorized without clinical data in the fall of 2022.