# Firefighter who battled COVID on front lines says he lost career for refusing vaccine: ‘I’m on team Jesus’

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/firefighter-who-battled-covid-on-front-lines-says-he-lost-career-for-refusing-vaccine-im-on-team-jesus/
- Published: 2026-11-05T22:00:49+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-05T23:50:22+00:00
- Original publisher: Fox News (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.foxnews.com/media/firefighter-battled-covid-front-lines-lost-career-refusing-vaccine-team-jesus
- Topics: Health, Medicine, World

## Key points

- Former firefighter Scott Carlson says a vaccine mandate cost him his career.
- He and seven colleagues are appealing a ruling against their claims.
- Their lawyers allege the city hid roles that could have accommodated them.

## Summary

Scott Carlson, a former Redmond, Washington, firefighter, says he lost his job after seeking a religious exemption from the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He and seven other firefighters are appealing a federal ruling that rejected their claims of religious discrimination and retaliation, arguing the city should have accommodated them.

Carlson says his crew worked for 18 months without cross-contamination before the mandate was introduced. The firefighters’ lawsuit, filed in 2022 and later expanded, alleges the city revoked exemptions and withheld information about roles where vaccination was not required. Their attorney says the case is now before the Ninth Circuit; the allegations have not been independently established in the article.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.