That day, he issued executive orders for federal employees and employees of federal contractors; and on November 5, OSHA issued an Emergency Temporary Standard for all companies across the country with 100 or more employees, all requiring employees to show proof of vaccination or face consequences.
Enforcement of these vaccination requirements was ultimately blocked by the courts, but many employers including many local governments and universities are still refusing unvaccinated people the right to work or make full use of the office or campus. Is your employer or school telling you that you must be vaccinated, or else?
Here I’ll show you how you can stay employed while retaining your right to medical and religious privacy.
If you or a loved one wants to work for a company or study at a school that requires vaccination, you may think your employer can legally fire or refuse to hire you (or a school can reject or expel you) for not complying. But this is not the case. Usually such companies provide a “religious accommodation” option which I think is also illegal, but you can apply for one and keep your job (or continue your studies) without actually revealing any religious beliefs or affiliations. Your employer should never require you to get a medical treatment that is not needed for you to do your job. And the fact is, it is not necessary to take any vaccine in order to perform the requirements of any job (unless, of course, you happen to be employed as a lab rat).
Otherwise, they would essentially be committing battery, which has been against the law everywhere for centuries.Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient’s consent commits an assault, for which he is liable in damages. — Justice Benjamin Cardozo, 1914 (see full decision)
Medical informed consent law developed from the intentional tort of battery, which protects individuals from an unwanted physical touching of the body by others having neither express nor implied consent of the person touched. Battery occurs in medicine when a physician performs a treatment without the patient’s consent, performs a substantially different procedure than the one for which consent was given, or exceeds the scope of the consent, or when a physician other than the one to whom consent was given carries out the procedure. — Medical Informed Consent: General Considerations for Physicians, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2008
A finding of “direct threat” must be based on reasonable medical judgment that relies on the most current medical knowledge and/or the best available evidence such as objective information from the CDC or state or local health authorities.Note an employee simply not following the CDC’s recommendations du jour does not constitute being a “direct threat.”
So the very idea that an employer, particularly a non-medical, civilian employer can require its employees to get vaccinated is on shaky ground. And the writers of the guidelines know that. So they very carefully crafted some exceptions to the rule that make it look like the requirement in the guidelines is one that employers can legally enforce.
These exceptions were part of the rules that the Biden Administration included in their employer mandates, and chances are you get them as well if your employer is requiring you to be vaccinated. You get three options: give proof of vaccination, disclose the medical condition you have that precludes your being vaccinated (ask for a “medical accommodation”), or give them the details of your religion that prohibits you from being vaccinated (ask for a “religious accommodation”). No way to preserve your medical or religious privacy here without being excluded from the office or campus, or even fired, right?
Actually, the definition of “religion” is broad enough that you can ask for a “religious accommodation” without revealing anything about what would typically be called your “religious affiliation” or “personal religious beliefs” which one might be uncomfortable sharing with strangers. Straight from the Federal Department of Labor on its Religious Discrimination and Accommodation in the Federal Workplace page (emphasis mine):
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) defines “religious beliefs” to include theistic beliefs (i.e. those that include a belief in God) as well as non-theistic moral or ethical beliefs about right and wrong that are sincerely held with the strength of traditional religious views.
In other words, if you strongly and sincerely believe it is morally wrong for you to take this particular medical treatment you qualify to avoid having to submit your proof of vaccination on religious grounds. End of story! Now how do we go about claiming this qualification so you don’t have to get vaccinated? Can we really find a moral principle that anyone who doesn’t want to take a COVID-19 vaccine can honestly claim to believe, that means they shouldn’t take the COVID-19 vaccine? And will this belief be compatible with any theory of disease, any theory of biology, any concept of the meaning and purpose of life, how we all came to be, or other cherished belief or rejection thereof that any COVID-19 vaccine-refusing person might have? Can it be espoused by someone one has already taken a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine without being accused of being unprincipled, hypocritical, or disingenuous? Glad you asked! Yes, yes, and yes! Really! Here’s how! Here’s all you need. If you have any questions about the vaccines that cannot be answered (for example, the data required to answer the question has not been disclosed), or if for each available COVID-19 vaccine, you would deny your consent to have it administered to you, you qualify! You cannot give your informed consent!
Here are the questions on the latest recommended form for Federal employees. Your employer is probably giving you something similar modeled after this, using the word “accommodation” instead of “exception.” You can find a link to it on the Safer Federal Workforce Vaccinations FAQ under “Limited Exceptions to Vaccination Requirement — Should agencies provide employees who are seeking a legally required exception to the vaccination requirement with a form?” I’m using the one from the "exception based on religion" dated October 29, 2021 and of course it will apply to anyone with a medical condition as well. You can go to Internet Archive to see both the October 29 Version (current as of Jan 15, 2022) and the Earlier (obsolete) Version. Note the obsolete version is no longer available on the Federal Workforce website although your employer is likely to still be using some form of it.
The answers to the questions hinge on the fact that every place you might go to receive your COVID-19 vaccine has you sign an “informed consent” form before you get your shot. If you don’t sign they won’t give it to you. It is a variation of a standard form used at clinics across the country before any medical procedure is performed, including the injection of a vaccine. In the case of children, it is signed by one of the parents. By signing the form you assert that you have been given the opportunity to ask questions about what is being administered, and that the questions have been answered to your satisfaction (you have been informed) and that after all that you consent to the procedure. I give two versions, one for the “short” form as currently recommended for Federal agencies, and one for the obsolete “long” form, variations of which have continued to be used by other employers and institutions. One or the other can be used to apply for a “religious accommodation” under your company‘s policy pursuant to the Federal guidelines. If your company gives you a form hopefully you will find one or the other appropriate. Or compose your own request using these examples as a reference.