It’s been quite some time since ABC and General Hospital had a mandate that all employees get the COVID-19 vaccine.
That was in 2021 when Ingo Rademacher, who played Jax, and Steve Burton, who plays Jason, were let go for non-compliance with the order.
Rademacher then sued ABC afterward, and in 2023, he lost the suit. Recently, he asked to have it reopened and go to trial, but ABC is pushing back against that petition.
He Wants an Official Trial
According to Variety, Rademacher sent an email to Disney’s HR Department that stated his reason for the initial lawsuit.
19 on the basis of my deeply and sincerely held moral belief that my body is endowed by my creator with natural processes to protect me and that its natural integrity cannot ethically be violated by the administration of artificially created copies of genetic material, foreign to nature and experimental.”
Rademacher has argued that his firing wasn’t just about the vaccine but also about the fact that several higher-ups did not like his political views.
In Touch reported in December 2024 that Rademacher asked the case be re-opened and go to trial because he had new evidence to support his claims: ABC had re-hired Burton in January 2024, who also had claims of religious exemption from the vaccine.
Rademacher has argued that his firing was personal and not for any health reasons.
ABC Fired Back
The outlet also stated that they obtained documents showing ABC’s response. The network claimed that Burton’s rehiring was “completely irrelevant, inadmissible, and would not raise a triable issue of fact in this case.”
The ABC lawyers claimed that Burton was rehired because the mandate had been lifted and, therefore, had no bearing on Rademacher’s case.
While the ruling has yet to be made by a judge, ABC’s lawyers also explained that Burton’s rehiring should not “be considered ‘newly discovered evidence’ that justifies a new trial.”
The network has constantly denied all of Rademacher’s allegations and counter-argued that his refusal to comply wasn’t based on his religious beliefs.
