Multiple studies throughout the world have shown the vaccine greatly reduces the likelihood of contracting COVID as well as the risks of hospitalization from serious ailments and death. “This goes against our religious belief and religious teaching,” the letter states without elaborating. Credit: Obtained by THE CITYĪnother letter, by a Manhattan-based Baptist pastor, says the church ministry does not support the mandate - and erroneously stated that the vaccine’s “ingredients… creates possibility of long-term adverse effects such as COVID-19.” A pastor at Manhattan Baptist church wrote a letter on behalf of a congregant. The unnamed staffer is “fulfilling her obligation to religious obligation to morality,” the letter contends. The letter then notes the employee seeking the exemption is “exercising her faculty of reason while considering Church teachings founded upon Biblical revelation.” One letter by a priest cites the part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that says: “God willed that man should be in the hand of his own counsel.” Those staffers - whose names were redacted - are also covered by the vaccine mandate. THE CITY obtained several religious exemption requests filed by nonprofit employees contracted by the city. Staffers waiting for a response on their exemptions remain on the payroll and working while other anti-vaxxers who did not file exemption requests have been put on unpaid leave. In the NYPD, 6,170 officers filed exemption applications, 1,850 in the FDNY, 550 at the Human Resources Administration and Department of Social Services, and 380 at the Department of Environmental Protection, according to city records. Some city agencies have been inundated with exemption requests, records show. Other federal defense agencies have rarely granted religious exemptions for other vaccines. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITYīy contrast, the Air Force had received 4,817 religious exemption requests but not granted a single one, as of Nov. Hundreds of people demonstrated against vaccine mandates during a protest outside City Hall, Nov. “These numbers are a snapshot in time - they are constantly moving as agencies process the requests,” Schwartz said. He added that the city has not broken down the data between religious and medical requests. 28, said Mitch Schwartz, a City Hall spokesperson.

In total, 1,422 of the requests had been approved and 1,710 had been denied as of Nov. Over 94% of the close to 400,000 city workers were vaccinated as of early November.īut the city has been slow to go through applications for religious and medical exemptions, with just 27% of all requests “processed so far,” according to city records. The de Blasio administration has touted the mandate, noting it has pushed nearly 11,000 employees to get vaccinated since the Nov. Very clearly the Torah says choose life.” City Moving Slowly “Our religion is predicated on the protection and preservation of health.

“I’m very troubled by religious exemptions,” Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency to ensure hospital bed availability in case of a spike in admissions and Mayor Bill de Blasio to urge New Yorkers to wear masks in indoor public spaces. Meanwhile, the emergence of the Omicron variant has spurred Gov. The letters flowed in as everyone from the pope to the prominent rabbis and imams has encouraged their followers to get the jabs.

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Vaccine religious exemption letter pdf