Here’s a thread for a non-emotional discussion about vaccine exemptions. It is not a pit discussion. If you want to rant about religious and other exemptions, feel free to open a topic in the pit.
I opened this mainly because it seems to be very hard to get numbers of how many are claiming religious and other exemptions. It is very hard to find out how organizations are handling them. Here is the first news article I’ve seen which discusses it.
24,000 people, 1,374 requested exemptions for (mostly) religious and other reasons.
MOD - please change the title. I should have had Religious and Other
The criteria for medical exemptions can vary quite dramatically. A vaccine passport system is rolling out here in Ontario next Friday. The only exemptions:
According to the Ministry of Health, residents are encouraged to review the ingredient list of any vaccine they receive before administration, as polyethylene glycol (PEG), polysorbate 80 and/or tromethamine can sometimes cause allergic reactions, albeit rarely.
The second would be if an individual suffered myocarditis or pericarditis after the first dose of a vaccine.
The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force just came out with it’s guidelines for Biden’s Executive Order.
Companies have until Nov 22 to comply so it may be a while before any real numbers on exemptions comes forth.
I’ve been under the impression that in the US at least,someone can claim a religious exemption even if their religion does not say anything whatsoever about immunizations.
For examle, someone who goes to a Methodist church can say “I’m a Methodist, so can’t get the vaccine”, and then authorities just have to agree with that. Even if there is nothing in that particular religious practice or even local ministry advice that says this.
I don’t think this is the case (in law at least) in other countries.
An interesting article which highlights the subject, but the last section was of additional interest to me.
In Arkansas, about 5% of the staff at the privately run Conway Regional Health System has requested religious or medical exemptions.
The hospital responded by sending employees a form that lists a multitude of common medicines — including Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol, Preparation H and Tums — that it said were developed or tested using fetal cell lines.
The form asks people to sign it and attest that “my sincerely held religious belief is consistent and true and I do not use or will not use” any of the listed medications.
In a statement, Conway Regional Health President and CEO Matt Troup said: “Staff who are sincere … should have no hesitancy with agreeing to the list of medicines listed.”
Avoiding any Pit-like attitude or judgement, I do think it would serve to highlight the discrepancy in uptake between the COVID vaccine vs other safe, (and OTC in many cases) common treatments and drugs.
I understand that most of the religious exceptions require frequent testing in lieu of a vaccine. As it turns out, getting tested regularly is a gigantic pain, and somewhat unpleasant to boot. As people figure that out, it’s possible they may start to discover that their religion doesn’t forbid the vaccine, as they had previously believed.
Or as they had previously made up.
I was trying to be subtle…
Sort of, but not exactly. The law allows for any religious objection at all, even non-organized religion. But it must be a ‘sincerely held belief’ and more importantly it must be religious in nature. It CANNOT be based on mere social or political beliefs. So this means employers basically can vet requests for exemptions and reject any they think are insincere or not based on religious doctrine.
So it comes down to individual employers. Some will just sign off on anything, especially if they didn’t much care about vaccination in the first place. My employer however is being considerably more stringent - you have to write out your objections on a form and justify yourself, then HR decides if you qualify. Something like “I’m a Methodist” isn’t necessarily going to cut it. You’re going to have to jump through some hoops, like get your pastor to agree.
A question that’s always been floating around the back of my mind about religious exemptions for medical treatment generally and vaccines specifically is how do “they” justify such a claim?
If you are a muslim or jewish, I could see being concerned and wanting to make sure whatever the treatment is doesn’t violate the more or less clearly stated standards for what is allowed and disallowed to come into contact/enter your body.
How does a baptist or methodist or espicopalean presbyterian justify this? As far as I know christianity doesn’t really have the same sorts of restrictions generally.
I know that there are some charismatic churches out there that preach about the gifts of the holy spirit and such, I used to be a member of one, but even the pastor of that church said go to a doctor if you’re hurt or sick after you pray, that the gifts of the holy spirit don’t always manifest as a “healing touch”
Personally, I just can’t see it. To me there are no valid religious excuses(islam and judeaism excepted, I don’t know enough to include other major religions from around the world)
ETA just realized this may be a hijack, apologies everyone