Ex-Neuralink employee sues after herpes monkey scratches

(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink Corp. forced an employee to work with monkeys carrying the Herpes B virus in conditions where the animals scratched her bare skin, according to a complaint filed Friday in a California state court.

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The employee, Lindsay Short, said that upon being transferred to the company’s Fremont, California facility in August 2022, she found “a work environment filled with guilt, 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 gender-based discrimination, among other issues.

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

The startup is in the early stages of clinical testing of its device, which aims to restore function to paralyzed patients. An Arizona man, Noland Arbaugh, recently underwent surgery and became the first human patient to have the device implanted. Quadriplegic, Arbaugh can now play video games using only his thoughts.

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

Short said she was working with monkeys carrying the Herpes B virus when she was scratched by a glove. She accused the company of not providing adequate protective equipment to work with the monkeys. In another incident, after being forced to perform a procedure she was unfamiliar with, a monkey scratched her face. When she insisted on medical treatment, her boss threatened “serious repercussions” if it happened again, according to the complaint.

In the lawsuit, Short also said Neuralink didn’t honor its promise of flexible work hours to accommodate her family, and then demoted her in May 2023, two months after a promotion.

The following month, she told Neuralink’s human resources department that she was pregnant. Short was fired the next day and the company said the firing was for performance reasons, according to the lawsuit.

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