Ah, yes, the religious exemption to the COVID vaccine:
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to block New York’s requirement that health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus even when they cite religious objections…
In his dissent on Monday in the case from New York, Justice Gorsuch wrote that the practical consequences of the court’s decision would be grave.
“Thousands of New York health care workers face the loss of their jobs and eligibility for unemployment benefits,” he wrote.
“These applicants are not ‘anti-vaxxers’ who object to all vaccines,” Justice Gorsuch added. “Instead, the applicants explain, they cannot receive a Covid-19 vaccine because their religion teaches them to oppose abortion in any form, and because each of the currently available vaccines has depended upon abortion-derived fetal cell lines in its production or testing.”
“The Free Exercise Clause protects not only the right to hold unpopular religious beliefs inwardly and secretly,” he wrote. “It protects the right to live out those beliefs publicly.”
This argument, as Gorsuch well knows, is utter nonsense and hypocrisy. He knows full well that these people don’t seriously “oppose abortion in any form.”That’s because if they really didn’t want to take medicines based on “abortion-derived fetal cell lines,” they would never take an immense number of prescription and over the counter medicines, including Tylenol and Tums. In fact, at least one organization, fed up with this ridiculous posturing, called their bluff:
A hospital system in Arkansas is requiring employees to confirm that they won’t use common medications — such as Tylenol, Tums, and Preparation H — to receive a religious exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
The Conway Regional Health System has required the flu shot annually as part of employment, but managers saw a spike in vaccine exemption requests for the COVID-19 vaccine.
“This was significantly disproportionate to what we’ve seen with the influenza vaccine,” Matt Troup, president and CEO of the health system, told Becker’s.
The majority of requests cited the use of fetal cell lines in the development of vaccines as part of the religious exemption. The practice uses cells grown in labs to test many new vaccines and drugs, including common antacids and cold medications.
“Thus, we provided a religious attestation form for those individuals requesting a religious exemption,” Troup said.
The hospital’s form includes a list of 30 common medications that used fetal cell lines during research and development. The list includes acetaminophen, albuterol, aspirin, ibuprofen, Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Tums, Lipitor, Senokot, Motrin, Maalox, Ex-Lax, Benadryl, Sudafed, Preparation H, Claritin, Prilosec, and Zoloft.
Employees are asked to attest that they “truthfully acknowledge and affirm that my sincerely held religious belief is consistent and true” and that they won’t use the medications listed.
Health system administrators want to “educate staff who might have requested an exemption without understanding the full scope of how fetal cells are used in testing and development in common medicines,” Troup said.
Employees who don’t sign the form will be given a temporary exemption, he said. If they don’t receive a vaccine or full exemption, they can face disciplinary action, including termination.
COVID vaccine refusal “on religious grounds” is actually based on political extremism and ignorance fed by far right right propagandists. Period. And Gorsuch knows this very well.
Update: more here.