TYB
Get rid of religious exemptions for vaccines
Faith should not take precedence over community protections against a mortal threat
The First Amendment does not guarantee a right to a religious exemption to vaccines. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court first established in a late-19th century case, which involved polygamy among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that the First Amendment protected religious beliefs but not necessarily actions that stem from those beliefs.
No less a conservative than Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the Supreme Court majority in a 1990 case that involved two Native Americans who were fired from their jobs and denied unemployment benefits after ingesting peyote during a religious ritual, observed that enforcement of general rules that apply to all members of a democratic society “must be preferred to a system in which each conscience is a law unto itself.”
The Supreme Court has vacillated on its interpretation of the First Amendment’s free exercise clause, but even in its more permissive decisions it has acknowledged that the government might have a compelling interest in enforcing laws even when they preclude certain religious practices.
Colorado requires students to be vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella, but it allows an exemption if the student “is an adherent to a religious belief whose teachings are opposed to immunizations or has a personal belief that is opposed to immunizations.” That applies to anyone, basically, who doesn’t want a vaccine and is willing to say so formally. Colorado is one of only 15 states that allows for exemption based on a personal belief, and not just a religious one.
The state mandate for COVID-19 vaccines similarly allows for a “religious exemption.” About 800 Colorado health care facilities recently submitted a religious waiver request, and, as of Friday, 883 staffers in the Colorado Department of Corrections have submitted nonmedical vaccine exemption requests, a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment spokesperson told Newsline. In addition, federal rules in some cases require vaccine-mandating employers to make accommodations for vaccine refusers who claim “a sincerely held religious belief.”
All of these exceptions should be abolished.
https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/10/11/get-rid-of-religious-exemptions-for-vaccines/
California surfer’s ‘measly punch’ fends off great white shark attack
‘It was like a clamp around my leg,’ says Eric Steinley, who was helped by others at Sonoma county beach
Surfers at a beach in Sonoma county, California, used a surfboard strap as a tourniquet to save a man whose right leg was bitten by a great white shark.
Eric Steinley was attacked as he surfed about 50 yards from shore at Salmon Creek beach last Sunday, but managed to alert others in the water.
The 38-year-old said he managed to punch the shark in the face to force it to release him, then was helped ashore by a stranger who used his board strap to tie the tourniquet.
Other surfers added a second tourniquet before using a longboard as a stretcher and taking Steinley to a helicopter pick-up point. He was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial hospital, where doctors performed two surgeries to save his leg.
Unprovoked shark attacks remain rare. In January, Florida University’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/11/california-surfer-punched-great-white-shark-attack