Pastor offers exemption letters for COVID vaccine skeptics
Details
- Publish Date:
- August 19, 2021
- Author(s):
-
- Estrin, Robin
- Source:
- Los Angeles Times
- Related Person(s):
Summary
Exemption letters aren’t necessary for those workers, since there is no state vaccination mandate, said Michelle Mello, a professor of law and medicine at Stanford University. Those who don’t want the vaccination can get regularly tested.
“You have to do one of two things to protect other people from the risk that you pose to them,” Mello said. “That’s not a mandate. A mandate is when you withhold an important benefit because a person declines to receive vaccination.”
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Some employees who refuse the vaccination can be reassigned to other duties without losing their jobs, Mello said. For example, a nurse can move from the intensive care unit to the claims office.
Mello said courts recognize “bona fide” and “sincere” religious exemptions but tend to be skeptical about personal objections cloaked in religious language.
If most people in a church have been inoculated against polio and mumps and are only raising concerns about the COVID-19 vaccination, “that is going to raise an index of suspicion about their claim,” Mello said.