5 ms·
To recap: Cornell to reinstate in-person classes as the norm and will require vaccination. Two possible exceptions: 1. Medical, will need a doctor to say so i
by ndr 5y ago
To recap:
Cornell to reinstate in-person classes as the norm and will require vaccination.
Two possible exceptions:
1. Medical, will need a doctor to say so in writing
2. Religious, will need to answer in writing to:
- Explain in your own words why you are requesting this religious exemption.
- Describe the religious principles that guide your objection to immunization.
- Indicate whether you are opposed to all immunizations, and if not, the religious basis that prohibits particular immunizations.
- TuringNYC 5y agoI was surprised to see this. I wonder if the rubric for acceptances and denials would be made public. Once this door is opened, it seems hard to allow any mix of acceptances/denials other than 0/100 or 100/0 without opening up a whole different set of conflicts.
- Hydraulix989 5y agoIt seems reasonable though? I cannot think of any major world religions against vaccination, yet can certainly understand medical exemption in specific cases.
- TuringNYC 5y agoI'm a long-time NYC resident and there have been numerous controversies over the years regarding religious vaccination exemptions. Some seemed legitimate (from the other person's viewpoint) while other cases I personally know were anti-Vaxxers trying to get religious exemptions (without actually being religious.) Except, in the second case, how do you decide if someone is being truthful or not w/r/t their rationale? After a recent Measles outbreak, there was a major push: https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-us-news-health-religion-new-york-13ef6b7b83914b9b84ef8dc6e06d071b https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-us-news-health-religi...
- Hydraulix989 5y agoI'm personally skeptical of religion in general. There are two religions mentioned in your linked article: Judaism and the Amish religion. That said, Israel has even encouraged Orthodox Jews to take the vaccine. As for the latter, I highly doubt there is any meaningful Amish contingent on campus. Like Cornell, I would also be hard pressed to empathize with an anti-vaxxer claiming religious reasons.
- TuringNYC 5y agoMy point isn't that I empathize with any viewpoint, but that on paper it is impossible to decide this. It forces an administrator who doesn't personally know an application to decide their firmness of faith with minimal information. An Anti-Vaxxer applying under a religious exemption doesn't list "Anti-Vaxxer" on their application.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hindsightbias 5y agoMaybe true about campus, but there are a lot of Amish and Mennonites up there. Cornell has pretty big Ag and Vetinary schools. Would be surprised if there wasn’t some reachout there.
- tzs 5y agoAn interesting thing about the Amish is that they don't generally have a religious objection to vaccines. Low vaccination rates in the past in Amish communities have generally been due to concerns about the vaccines themselves. They might feel that the number and timing of the standard childhood vaccinations would overwhelm the child's immune system, for example. These beliefs were wrong, but they were wrong due to ignorance not due to stupidity. So when, say, something like measles would break out in an Amish community that had low measles vaccinations the doctors treating it could explain why the reasons the Amish gave for not being vaccinated were wrong, the Amish would understand this, and they'd get vaccinated to help stop the outbreak. But with COVID the Amish are giving the same stupid reasons that the social media disinformation campaigns are giving. That raises the question of where they got those reasons from. Are there a bunch of Amish with smartphones surreptitiously hidden at the bottom of their sock drawers who sneak out to the barn to furtively access social media?
- tzs 5y agoThere are a few Christian sects against vaccination in general, but the only one most people are likely to have heard of is the Church of Christ, Scientist (not to be confused with Scientology, which has no problem with vaccination). Some object to specific vaccines if they are made in particular ways, such as ways that involved tissue from aborted fetuses. You might expect Judaism and Islam to both object that vaccines that use pork products (porcine gelatin for example), but they are both OK with it. Here's some information on specific religions [1]. [1] https://www.vumc.org/health-wellness/news-resource-articles/immunizations-and-religion https://www.vumc.org/health-wellness/news-resource-articles/...