Thousands of federal workers are seeking religious exemptions to avoid vaccinations

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Mon, 2021-11-08 10:19 — mike kraft

Nearing Monday coronavirus vaccine deadline, thousands of federal workers seek religious exemptions to avoid shots The Biden administration’s plan to vaccinate the federal workforce is succeeding in many quarters, but the exemptions sought by some employees are complicating efforts to return the government to full strength. Washington Post

With a Monday deadline looming, high percentages of federal workers are reporting they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. But tens of thousands of holdouts have requested exemptions on religious grounds, complicating President Biden’s sweeping mandate to get the country’s largest employer back to normal operations.

Federal agencies have yet to act on the requests piling into managers’ inboxes from vaccine resisters seeking accommodations that would allow them to continue their jobs unvaccinated rather than face the possibility of being fired as the administration has threatened. A far smaller number of employees have asked for exemptions on medical grounds, officials said, prompting what are likely to be more clear-cut decisions on whether to grant them.

The number of religious objectors ranges from a little more than 60 people at the Education Department to many thousands among the 38,000-strong workforce at the Bureau of Prisons, according to federal employee union officials. ...

Exemption requests have become the go-to alternative for those opposed to coronavirus vaccines because managers must hold off on discipline while requests are reviewed. With a Nov. 22 deadline for employees to show proof of full vaccination status, Monday (today) is the deadline to get a Johnson & Johnson shot or a second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

The process could take months for officials designated at each agency, leaving anxious employees in limbo and delaying implementation of a mandate Biden announced in September as a model for employers nationwide. The administration saw the vaccine program as essential to getting workers back in their offices and improving services to taxpayers. ...

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