Worker fired for pregnancy sues Elon Musk’s Neuralink after scratches from herpes monkey

Lindsay Short accused the company of failing to provide proper protective gear to work with the primates that scratched her bare skin

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A Neuralink employee has sued the firm for retaliation, wrongful termination and gender-based discrimination. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:15pm, 15 Jun 2024

Elon Musk’s brain-implant start-up Neuralink Corp. forced an employee to work with monkeys that carried the Herpes B virus in conditions in which the animals scratched her bare skin, according to a complaint filed on Friday in state court in California.

The employee, Lindsay Short, said that once she transferred to the company’s Fremont, California, site in August 2022, she encountered “a work environment fraught with blame, shame, and impossible deadlines.” She said she was later fired after telling her supervisors that she was pregnant.

Short sued the company for retaliation, wrongful termination and discrimination based on her gender among other issues.

Neuralink did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.

The start-up is in the early stages of clinical trials for its device, which is aimed at restoring function for paralysed patients. An Arizona man, Noland Arbaugh, recently underwent surgery and became the first human patient to have the device implanted. A quadriplegic, Arbaugh can now successfully play video games by using only his thoughts.

The company has also come under fire for the mistreatment of monkeys and other animals in the past, including botched surgeries when it conducted research on monkeys housed at the University of California at Davis. It has since moved monkey research to its own facilities.