“Because in a real sense, it’s abusing religion. It’s important to highlight how problematic it is to misuse religious exemptions is, Reiss pointed out. With its relatively recent onset, experts agree that it might be too early to talk about the rate of religious exemptions on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate rollout. It then often comes down to individual interpretations of scripture that lead to religion-based anti-vaccine beliefs.Īccording to Williams, facilitating an ongoing conversation between faith leaders, public health experts and community members would provide for a safe space for individuals to voice their concerns and get answers in a comfortable environment. Reverends and bishops across the country have started collaborating with governments to build trust in the COVID-19 vaccine. And they all support COVID vaccines as well,” Williams said. “All major faith traditions support vaccinations. When asked about alternatives to curb the spread of misinformation regarding vaccine side effects and composition and the misuse of religious exemptions, Williams suggested a collaboration with religious and faith leaders whom individuals have already built trust with. “It comes down to something scaring them of the vaccine and they’re using the religious exemption as a cover,” Reiss said.Ī common concern among vaccine opponents is the use of fetal cell lines in vaccine research and development, although not an actual ingredient in the vaccine. Employees’ rights to challenge accommodations provided by their employer are also protected by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with whom they can file an official complaint.Įmployers can maintain high proportions of vaccinated individuals and still make accommodations for those with sincere religious beliefs as demonstrated by the Conway Regional Health System.īut allowing religious exemptions on the basis of how convincing the justification is, Reiss explained, is problematic because it opens the door for people who've attended anti-vaccine workshops or "people who are just better liars" to game the system.Īccording to Williams, vaccine hesitancy and the misuse of religious exemptions can be attributed to not only a gap in knowledge caused due to vaccine misinformation and disinformation, but also due to a lack of trust between individuals and public health experts. However, employers cannot discriminate in favor of organized religions and hence aren’t allowed to request letters from clergy or priests as proof. “You can ask them a tough question to gauge sincerity.” “You can’t try and assess if the belief is rational,” Reiss clarified. In other words, it is on them to assess the sincerity of the belief, not the accuracy or validity.Įmployers can require their employees to explain the basis of their belief in detail and don't need to accept a cursory attestation to grant the exemption, Reiss said. In the face of a religious exemption application, employers or schools have the right to probe the exemption and question the applicant. In the wake of the 2019 measles outbreak in the states of New York and Washington, where most cases were reported among the unvaccinated, the states eliminated religious exemptions. However, as seen in some states, this right can be overruled in the interest of public health. Individuals’ rights to claim a religious exemption from immunization is protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “You can’t just grab onto a biblical verse when it’s convenient,” Reiss, who has written about the legality of vaccine mandates in law journals, said. Unlike personal belief exemptions, which are relatively broad, religious exemptions have to be integrated into a holistic belief system, said Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Hastings College of the Law. “One thing that people have done previously has shown that the harder it is to obtain an exemption, the lower the rate of exemptions becomes,” he added. This suggests that “perhaps people were increasingly using that religious exemption category, even though they might not necessarily have a religious objection to vaccines,” Williams said.
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