Editorial: Dump COVID vaccine religious exemptions. There is no Church of Moderna Disbelievers

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LATIMES.COM
Editorial: Dump COVID vaccine religious exemptions. There is no Church
of Moderna Disbelievers - Los Angeles Times
The Times Editorial Board

What is a COVID-19 vaccine mandate worth if it includes exemptions for
"sincerely held religious beliefs"? Very little, if anything at all.

If the definition of religious beliefs were contained to major,
established religions, there would basically be no exemptions because
no major religion bans vaccination against COVID-19 or other diseases.
In fact, leaders of many large congregations have been telling their
flocks during the pandemic, "Don't look to me for a religious excuse."

And the wording "sincerely held," which many employers have included
in their mandates, doesn't guard against the anti-vax sentiments of
employees who might have recently formed their own Church of Moderna
Disbelievers. Who can see into a person's sincerity, even if their
claim seems like a hastily and conveniently adopted spirituality that
calls for letting COVID-19 run its course of illness and death?

Given how large a loophole religious exemptions create, no one should
be remotely surprised that thousands of Los Angeles employees are
lining up to claim religious exemptions from the city's vaccine
requirement for its employees -- a little more than 10% overall, but
with police personnel particularly prominent. About a quarter of LAPD
employees have indicated they are planning on filing for a religious
exemption. An additional 360 plan to seek medical exceptions.

Meanwhile, a group of LAPD and L.A. Fire Department employees are
suing the city to end the mandate altogether, with or without an
exemption. They claim that requiring vaccination as a condition of
their job violates their constitutional rights to privacy and due
process.

Shame on them. For the most part, these are personnel who come into
close contact with the public on a regular basis. Their jobs call for
them to protect the public, and that shouldn't just mean from crime
and fire. They have an obligation to avoid harming the people they
serve.

Similar claims and lawsuits are cropping up across the country. Some
go further than arguing that religious freedom should cover anyone who
claims such a spiritual belief and say they object because the
vaccines were developed or designed using cell lines from aborted
fetal tissue, though the vaccines themselves contain no such tissue.
Pope Francis, however, has urged people to be vaccinated.

Governments and public agencies that have allowed religious exemptions
from their vaccine mandates have done so largely to avoid lawsuits.
Obviously, that ploy didn't work.

Religious exemptions don't protect the public, and when it comes to
COVID-19, public health must remain the overriding priority. Courts
have generally ruled that employers must make reasonable allowances
for religious beliefs, but even in the cases when those claims are the
result of legitimate, deeply held spiritual or moral beliefs, it is
not reasonable to allow COVID-19 to continue threatening public
health.

In other words, employers should eliminate religious exemptions when
it comes to COVID-19 vaccination. The mandates should apply to
everyone except the very few who have legitimate and serious medical
issues that make the vaccine dangerous for them.

California schools have done this for the last several years for the
regular schedule of childhood vaccines, after state lawmakers got rid
of the "personal belief" exemption following a measles outbreak that
started at Disneyland in 2014. And school vaccine mandates have been
repeatedly upheld by courts, including those without a religious
exemption.

COVID-19 vaccines aren't on that list of childhood immunizations, of
course. But the Los Angeles Unified School District recently mandated
them for all students who are eligible to receive them, which now is
ages 12 and older, regardless of religious beliefs. Yet the school
district strangely allowed religious exemptions for teachers and other
staff members.

That doesn't make public health sense. What's good for students is
good for employees: All those who are medically eligible should offer
up their arms for a jab.

Time to get more consistency and fairness around these rules.
Religious convictions -- whether newly found as a convenient excuse or
long held by sincere believers -- cannot trump the importance of
bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
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