The Covid-19 vaccine is an issue where individual feelings, religious beliefs and public policy collide.
Compare Biden’s takeaway from the church’s leader in Rome with the stance of its US leadership: The US Conference of Catholic Bishops thinks individual bishops should have the right to deny the sacrament to the nation’s second Catholic President over the Democratic Party’s support for abortion rights. I bring this up not to highlight a rift in the church, but as a prelude to looking at the Covid-19 vaccine, another very important issue where individual feelings, religious beliefs and public policy collide. The collision is happening before our eyes. More Americans eligible for vaccines soon. The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use in children ages 5-11. Assuming a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel concurs, it could be going into little arms next week. States seek to protect vaccine objectors. Iowa passed a law extending unemployment benefits to those fired for not complying with vaccine requirements and strengthened language for religious exemptions. States are fighting the federal government over vaccine requirements. Florida sued the federal government over its vaccine requirement for federal workers. The Supreme Court has declined to get involved. Health care workers in Maine asked the US Supreme Court to force the state to honor their request for religious exemptions to the vaccine. The court denied the request Friday night. This is a debate happening on an individual basis every day. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday issued guidance for how employees can seek religious exemptions and making clear that companies can ask employees for more information about the requests. Where few religious exemptions are granted. What caught my eye was a Washington Post report Thursday on how up to 12,000 Air Force personnel have failed to comply with orders to get a Covid-19 vaccine and could face termination. Deeper in the story was this interesting tidbit about religious exemptions in the Army and Navy: The Army, which is the largest military service, has granted just one permanent medical exemption and no religious exemptions for the coronavirus vaccine, officials said. The Navy hasn’t granted any religious exemptions for any vaccine — for the coronavirus or otherwise — in the past seven years.
