With vaccine warrants in the workplace, opponents resort to a proven resource to avoid a covid-19 trait: the claim that vaccination interferes with religious beliefs.
And if a person claims their private religious beliefs prohibit vaccination, that defense is unlikely to stay in court if challenged, legal experts say. Although individual clergy members have mounted the anti-vaccine cart, they have no obvious justification in religious texts for their position. Many seem willing to care for people who refuse vaccination for another reason.
“I get the feeling that not many people will want to fight on this issue,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of California-Berkeley.
The full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration on August 23 could put the issue within reach. Many government agencies, health care providers, colleges and the military had been waiting for the move before implementing the mandates.
Nothing in the story suggests that a large number of students or staff members will look for such a way out, but then no previous conversation about vaccines has been as openly politicized as that of covid.
“This country is fulfilling mandates. It’s true. Any other alternative has been tried,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at UC-San Francisco. “That phrase, ‘religious exemption,’ is very large. But it will be quite difficult in the current climate (in a massive health crisis, with a vaccine in place, just let go of these religious claims.”
In fact, while emerging anti-vaccine churches have long offered reluctant parents ways to exempt their children from the traits, these days churches, internet-based religious companies, and others seem to offer covetous vaccination exemptions to wholesale.
Still, the Vatican has considered it “morally acceptable” to get a vaccine against covides. In fact, Pope Francis declared it “the moral choice because it is about your life, but also that of others.” In a growing number of dioceses (Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York, among others), bishops have instructed priests and deacons not to sign any letter lending the church primer to one. legality of religious exemption.
Schmedes did not respond to KHN’s questions via email.
Meanwhile, in the city of Rocklin, in the Sacramento area, a church that openly defied Newsom’s coveted stop orders last year has handed out hundreds of exemption letters. Greg Fairrington, pastor of the Christian Church of Destiny, told church service attendees, “No one should be able to order you to take a vaccine or lose your job. That’s not right, here at America “.
EEOC guidelines suggest that employers make a “reasonable accommodation” to those with a sincere religious objection to a workplace norm. This could mean moving an unvaccinated employee to an isolated part of the office, or from a forward-facing position to one that involves less interpersonal contact. But the employer is not obliged to do anything that involves undue difficulty or more than a “de minimis” cost.
As for the objection itself, the council’s advice is imprecise. Employers “should normally assume that an employee’s request for religious accommodation is based on a sincere religious belief,” the EEOC says. Employers have the right to request supporting documentation, but employees ’religious beliefs must not respect any specific or organized faith.
The distinction between religion and ideology is blurred among those seeking exemptions. In Turlock, California, her pastor received a letter of exemption from a preschool teacher who offered the documents to those who considered the vaccine “morally compromised.” Asked by KHN via a direct message why she asked for the exemption, the woman said she was not comfortable getting vaccinated because of the “vaccine contents,” adding, “I’m personally on ‘Covid’ and control that the government is trying to implement in us! ”Like other exemption applicants, even those who have posted to anti-vaccine groups on Facebook, he feared other people would know he was seeking an exemption.
A surgical technician working at Dignity Health, which has ordered its employees completely vaccinated on Nov. 1, said it was waiting for a response from the company’s human resources department about its request for a religious exemption. He freely explained his reasons for applying by referring to two biblical passages and listing the ingredients of the vaccine that he said were “harmful to the human body.” But he didn’t want anyone to know that he applied for the religious exemption.
The right of a state to require vaccination has been a law established since the 1905 Supreme Court ruling that confirmed mandatory smallpox vaccination in Massachusetts. Legal experts claim that this right has been repeatedly confirmed, even in a 1990 Supreme Court decision that actions motivated by religion are not isolated from the laws, unless a law distinguishes religion to be treated in disadvantage. In August, Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett rejected, without comment, a challenge to the Indiana University rule of vaccinating all students, staff and faculty.
“Under current legislation, it is clear that no religious exemption is required,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC-Berkeley law school, told KHN. Clearly, this does not stop people from looking for one.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues. Along with policy analysis and survey, KHN is one of the top three KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) operational programs. KFF is a gifted non-profit organization that provides information on health issues in the nation.