Some of the vaccines were tested and developed using cells derived from the tissue of fetuses aborted more than three decades ago. The connection between abortion and the COVID-19 vaccine is tenuous. In the records obtained by The Times, many employees said they objected to the vaccine because they saw abortion as a mortal sin. for their clients, which are adopted by the clients and filed as their own sworn statements in various proceedings,” he said. “Attorneys routinely draft first-person statements, affidavits, declarations, etc. Mihet said in an email that “Liberty Counsel provides free assistance to help employees articulate their own religious beliefs” and that the practice is not “improper.” Written in the first person, the statement asked for a vaccine waiver so “I am not forced to sin and stain my conscience.” The statement noted the employee’s concern with fetal cell lines, then added an idea the employee hadn’t mentioned: an objection to “any other product or medication that is connected to abortion in the same way.” The employee’s email and Mihet’s response were forwarded multiple times, eventually landing in the inbox of an Orange County Sheriff’s Department employee. “Do not put anything on it that identifies me or that the statement came from me. “Cut and paste the statement below, assuming it correctly states your religious beliefs,” Horatio Mihet wrote. Others were written by pastors who described the employees as members of their online congregations who could not be vaccinated because of their faith. Some letters, including the one from True Hope Ministry, included incorrect information and raised concerns about the vaccine that were not related to religion. Most employees’ names and other sensitive information were redacted by the agencies that provided the records. A few employees described themselves as Mormon, Syrian Orthodox, Christian Scientist, Muslim and Buddhist. Most requests were written by Catholics and evangelical Christians. “They didn’t want to vaccinate and went looking for something that sounds convincing as a way to get out of it.” “It seems that many of these people were not acting for sincere religious reasons,” Reiss said. But, she said, it’s likely that many copy-and-paste exemptions are simply a means to an end. and America’s Frontline Doctors.įorm letters may help some devout people articulate complicated but legitimate views, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law who studies legal issues related to vaccines. Others lifted language from anti-vaccination groups such as Children’s Health Defense - chaired by Robert F. Several letters reviewed by The Times included statements identical to those on the website of Defending the Republic, a Texas organization led by Sidney Powell, a conspiracy theorist and lawyer connected to former President Trump. But the majority of exemption requests reviewed by The Times were copied from letters posted on websites of evangelical churches, conservative legal groups and fee-based organizations such as True Hope Ministry. Some employees at the DWP, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and two Southern California school districts cited Scripture and described their relationships with their faith. They also reveal a cottage industry that has sprung up to help people justify decisions to refuse vaccination. The documents, from four public employers, show just how complicated it can be to review vaccine exemption requests. Through public records requests, The Times amassed more than 2,200 pages of emails, letters and other records related to religious waivers from vaccine rules.
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