nyc religious exemption vaccination letter

Unless their employees make an explicitly political argument against the shot or espouse easily debunked conspiracy theories, several hospital executives said they believe they have to approve the religious exemptions. And Nebraska lawmakersĪre advancing legislation that would allow exemption if workers sign a one-page state-produced form. Is pushing a bill that would exempt workers from vaccination if they submit a one-sentence statement saying they object to the shot on religious grounds. Urged health care workers to “consider using the religious and medical exemption processes that your employers are required to offer,” attaching a sample form for employees. Some Republican elected officials who oppose vaccine mandates are encouraging people to request religious dispensations. “There can be a level of people making things up, unfortunately.”įacebook didn’t respond to a request for comment. “The religious exemption is not a tough standard for a worker to submit,” she said. Some workers are submitting the same language as one another, copied and pasted from documents found online or shared in anti-vaccine Facebook groups, said Michelle Strowhiro, an employment lawyer advising health care facilities around the country at McDermott. Some attorneys say many of those seeking religious exemptions are drumming up any reason to refuse the vaccine and lying about their beliefs. Still, some people have genuine religious objections, including concerns about the use of lab-grown cell lines from the tissue of decades-old aborted fetuses in the research that led to the vaccines - though those cell lines were also used in the development of common over-the-counter medicines like Tylenol and aspirin.īut the federal government’s mandate has also led determined anti-vaxxers to ask for religious exemptions - with no way to tell how sincere they are, according to attorneys reviewing the claims.

Nearly all mainstream religious leaders, including the pope, have called on their faithful to take the shot. “Many health care facilities are already denying this vital information to disabled patients, depriving us of the right to make meaningfully informed choices about the care we receive - a matter that is, quite literally, life and death for many of us,” Cortland said. Patients can ask hospitals whether their caregivers are vaccinated but hospitals don’t have to answer them, and routinely won’t, according to Cortland and hospital executives around the country. Studies show that unvaccinated individuals are more likely to contract and transmit the virus.Įmployees in all states are required to have their first shot, and those in about half the states are supposed to have their second shot by Monday.

“If I knew that a health care worker was unvaccinated, I would not consent to their involvement in my care,” said Matthew Cortland, a disability rights attorney who takes immunosuppressants and is a senior fellow at Data for Progress, a progressive think tank. POLITICO found in an analysis of federal data. hospitals, likely due to insufficient control measures, Last month, as Omicron surged, more patients than at any time of the pandemic caught Covid in U.S. But public health experts and patient advocates fear that widespread use of the exemptions risks infecting patients with the virus, even as Covid-19 cases decline rapidly from their January peak. Several hospital executives told POLITICO their prevalence has helped keep the hospital from laying off dozens of employees, which would threaten their ability to provide patient care. While the federal government doesn’t track the number of religious exemptions, anecdotal evidence indicates they are widespread in health care settings. Hospital officials from several states said they created simple forms to meet the administration’s mandate, which requires all health workers, including those not directly involved in patient care, to either get vaccinated or have a hospital-approved religious or medical exemption.

Nyc religious exemption vaccination letter