![]() Until recently, the trend had been going the other way, with four states - California, New York, Connecticut, and Maine - removing religious exemption policies over the past decade. Mississippi began allowing such exemptions for schools and child care centers in July following a court ruling that the state’s lack of a religious exemption violated the U.S. If the state is successful in expanding its policy to child care facilities, it would become the second this year to add a religious exemption to its immunization requirements for younger kids. ![]() Montana, like 44 other states, allows religious exemptions from immunization requirements for school-age children. “If it came down to where I had to, I had no choice, I would stop enrolling children today,” Hutzenbiler said. Relieved, because as she scoured the proposed regulations, she found that her facility, which is licensed to care for up to 15 children, would be in a category of smaller providers that could choose whether to enroll unvaccinated kids. Dismayed, because allowing more children to claim exemptions could compromise the community immunity levels necessary to defend against highly infectious diseases like measles and pertussis. ![]() So, when officials at Montana’s health department revived a proposal that would allow people to claim religious exemptions from immunization requirements at child care facilities, Hutzenbiler was both dismayed and relieved. Part of ensuring that healthy environment is having a strong vaccination policy, she said, especially for those who are immunocompromised or too young to receive the full slate of childhood vaccines. “These families came to me knowing we could offer them a safe and healthy environment,” Hutzenbiler said. 1 to get vaccinated.This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. Kaiser has not said exactly how many employees had their religious exemption requests denied as Jensen did, stating Monday that 93 percent of its employees are now vaccinated and “approximately 1 percent of our active workforce have declined to respond and are now on unpaid leave.”Īll, Kaiser said, have until Dec. Jensen could not be reached Monday for further comment on the situation. “If our employee in this case had connected with HR, she could have asked questions and been provided information about next steps for addressing the vaccination requirement,” Kaiser said. Kaiser’s statement addressed Jensen’s situation directly, saying that she could have spoken to a human resources representative to further hash things out, but did not directly address her assertion on video that her requests to talk with HR went nowhere. “It’s a slippery slope when you start taking away freedoms.” The phrase has recently become the rallying cry of many on the right who are unhappy with recent decisions made by President Joe Biden and his administration. “I’ve been a COVID nurse since the beginning when we didn’t know what was going on, when we didn’t know what kind of rooms we were walking into.”Īdding the hashtag “letsgobrandon” to one of her posts, the mother of two also signaled a political point of view. Jensen noted that she took care of her community when the pandemic started in 2020 and no vaccine was available. ![]() ![]() Most organized churches have come out in favor of vaccination. Wearing a blue floral head covering and walking quickly up seven stories of stairs to the top of the facility’s adjacent parking structure with a uniformed hospital security guard in her wake, Jensen said she was determined to stand up for her “sincerely held religious beliefs” though she did not specify what those beliefs were. Shot selfie style while security escorted her from Kaiser’s newest San Diego hospital, Jensen said her attempts to learn more from human resources about why her exemption was denied went nowhere until she was told she was being placed on unpaid leave. “We believe that misusing the religious exemption to avoid vaccination is disrespectful to those with sincere religious beliefs, and could violate the ethical standards we expect our employees to meet,” Bindman’s statement said.Ī pair of videos posted to the Instagram account of nurse and dietician Tori Jensen Saturday suggest that the decision had a sudden effect for some. ![]()
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