She responded by signing paperwork stating that she does not believe the shots are in line with her religious beliefs.
She cited several Old and New Testament verses, including a passage in Revelation that vaccine opponents frequently quote to compare the shots to the Mark of the Beast. She also told her managers that God is the ultimate guardian of our health and that she would be “complicit with evil” if she accepted the vaccine.
Religious exemptions such as the one Buffo received are becoming more popular as a way for nurses and hospital workers to continue their work despite the federal mandates in effect this week.
Some institutions allow staff to invoke religious exemptions and have them approved by large numbers of managers. This is a problem for hospital administrators who struggle to keep adequate staff and are often reluctant to question the legitimacy.
“We are not going to have Torquemada decide if your religious exemption was granted or denied by the Grand Inquisitor,” Dr. Randy Tobler, CEO at Scotland County Hospital in Missouri said. There, 25% of the 145 employees still need to be vaccinated, and 30 of them have been granted exemptions.
Tobler said that some employees threatened to quit if they had to get the shot.
Tobler stated, “For those who want to judge our work in rural America, i’d love them come and walk in the shoes of us for a while, just sit at the desk and try to staff it.”
About 200 staff members at Cody Regional Health, Wyoming, have requested religious exemptions. Most have been granted. Montana Gov. Montana Governor West Virginia legislators have drafted a proposal that would allow those who are denied an exemption to collect unemployment benefits.
On Monday, health care workers in 24 US states (all but three of which were for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign) will have to have had their first vaccination or be exempted. The mandate was already in effect in those jurisdictions that did not challenge it in court. However, enforcement actions will not begin immediately.
It impacts a broad range of industry workers, including doctors, nurses, technicians and aides, as well as hospital volunteers, nursing homes, home health agencies, and other providers who participate in federal Medicare or Medicaid programs.
Some hospitals and cities have their own requirements, in addition to the federal mandate. The most severe example is in New York City where public workers could be fired if they didn’t get vaccinated by Friday. Although the military has its own vaccine mandates but commanders have refused to allow religious exemptions, they have been reluctant to terminate public workers if they aren’t vaccinated by Friday.
Although reasons for exemptions can vary, many people cite the vaccines’ distant link to aborted fetuses decades ago. Lab-grown cell lines derived from these fetuses were used in manufacturing and testing. However, the vaccines do NOT contain fetal cells and workers are generally seeking exemptions with the support of prominent religious leaders.
Hospital leaders recognize that the exemptions are a way for them to retain staff in a time of limited resources.
Brock Slabach is chief operations officer of the National Rural Health Association. He stated that “our position has been we would want everyone to be vaccinated.” “But, we also believe that access to care should be incredibly important.”
Similar stories are common across the country.
About 20% of the 320 employees at McCook Community Hospital, Nebraska’s southwestern region, have not been vaccinated. It has 25 beds. Around 35 people applied for exemptions and others are still deciding. Some requests that were based on religious reasoning have been rejected by the hospital.
Troy Buntz, hospital CEO and president, stated that if it’s a lengthy, like, essay about the science behind why this should not be allowed or a complete essay explaining why a particular political party or figure is an idiot (which we’ve seen), we don’t agree with that because it’s not religious at any time.” “We do not push back on them, but I don’t know if others are reading the exemptions as well as they should.
Richard Roberson, general counsel for the Mississippi state hospital association, said that some Mississippi hospitals have almost all of their employees vaccinated, while others are closer towards the 50 to 70% range. He has been contacted by dozens of people asking about the exemptions since the mandate was issued.
“I don’t know how many, but we’re in the heart the Bible belt. Roberson stated that this is something everyone holds dear.
At the rural, northeastern Kansas hospital Holton Community Hospital with 14 beds, 28 of 193 employees received religious exemptions. One employee also got a medical exemption. Although the mandate has helped increase staff vaccination rates from 75% to almost 87%, some younger nurses are still hesitant due to disproven concerns about the vaccine’s fertility. CEO Carrie Saia stated that this mandate had not been able to change the rate of vaccination.
Saia asked about vaccine resistance among medical staff, since they regularly see that patients with severe COVID-19 effects are overwhelmingly unvaccinated. She said that “unfortunately” with the COVID 19 epidemic, things have become so political and polarized.
Montana nurse Buffo said that she was in a state of terror when the mandate was given, afraid it would threaten her career. She asked herself how much sacrifice she would make for her values and turned to the Bible to strengthen her resolve to resist the “insidious evil” behind the vaccine campaign.
Marcella Dahl, a nurse at a Sidney primary care clinic in Montana, stated that she feels like certain people are abusing exemptions, and it’s alarming to hear from religious leaders encouraging this practice.
Dahl stated that half of those saying it don’t go to church. It puts everyone at risk, I believe.”
The country has historically seen a small number of faith-based opponents to vaccinations. These were mainly the End Time Ministries or the Church of the First Born. During the pandemic, however, mainstream preachers spoke out against vaccines from the pulpit.
“That’s new and that’s an issue,” Dr. Chris Beyrer of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said. You should leave health care if you don’t want to get vaccinated or you’re going be caring for the elderly and frail.
