A California woman who worked for Elon Musk’s brainchip company Neuralink has opened a lawsuit claiming she was scratched by a lab monkey infected with the Herpes B virus.
The woman is accusing the firm of wrongful termination, retaliation and gender discrimination, among other allegations. She also claims she was fired after telling her bosses that she was pregnant, reports The Independent.
Lindsay Short, who joined Neuralink in August 2022, accused the firm of failing to provide proper protective equipment to staff, which left her exposed to the infected monkey that scratched her.
The lawsuit alleges Neuralink created a hostile workplace, that superiors had unrealistic deadlines. and that employees were often shamed for not meeting their assigned targets.
According to Short, in a September 2022 incident, a monkey scratched her through her glove and broke her skin, leaving her “exposed to Herpes B”, and on a second occasion, another monkey, also carrying the virus, scratched across the face.
B virus infection is extremely rare but can lead to severe brain damage or death if treatment is not immediate.
Her bosses had apparently threatened “severe repercussions” if she were injured again on the job, according to her lawsuit.
Pregnant
In June 2023, she alleged, she had told the company’s HR department that she was pregnant, to “determine whether reasonable accommodations could be made for her”.
She went directly to the HR department, rather than to her superiors, because her bosses “would often mention how they did not like children”.
She was reportedly fired the day after she went to human resources.
“The one-day difference between her disclosure that she was pregnant and her wrongful termination strongly suggests retaliation,” the lawsuit says.
Neuralink had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
The company is working on a brain implant it hopes will help paralysed individuals walk again, and cure or treat other neurological problems.
However, more than a dozen staff have accused Musk of pressuring them to speed up the development process, resulting in botched experiments and slowing their progress.
Those alleged failed tests not only stalled research, but led to the unnecessary deaths and injuries of lab animals, said workers, who have claimed that animal deaths at Neuralink are higher than at a typical lab, specifically because Musk is demanding they work faster.
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