Boston University mandates all professors and staff get Covid-19 shots by September - or face being put on leave

I assume that some amoral variant of an Evangelical church (same people who think Trump was a great, moral leader) will start insisting it's a religious issue and the Supreme Court will agree.

Make America sick again.

“ a book of fairy tales told me to” shouldn’t be a good enough excuse for anything.

but then, there are no valid religious reasons for anything.

I did not notice when I posted this that Kinopio had more or less said the same thing in the previous post.

Not the same as having a medical condition that prohibits getting the vaccine.
Though I’m sure religious zealots will come up with some doozies for why they are special and above getting vaccinated.

While I desperately want all 50 states to eliminate all non-medical exemptions for all vaccines, it doesn't change the fact that "no major religion says that you should not get vaccinated" is totally irrelevant to the law. It simply does not matter. There's no "only the big boys count" clause in the First Amendment or in free exercise jurisprudence. It's about if the court believes the person is being sincere in their beliefs. (Versus, say, knowingly trying to run some scam.). You could say "I had a vision from God last night that the vaccines are Satan's work" and the courts don't get to say "nope, sorry, no religion holds that as a valid religious belief, no religious exemption for you".

This falls out of courts long holding that the First Amendment prevents courts from opining on what the doctrine of any particular religion is or on the validity of the beliefs of adherents. So if some anti-vaxxer claimed to be Catholic courts would not be allowed to judge whether opposition to vaccines is or is not valid Catholic doctrine.

(This is the same reason why courts will, for example, refuse to deal with a clause in a will that says something like "and X to Bob, but only if he's following true Catholic practices". They aren't allowed to determine what "true Catholic practices are" and so cannot determine if Bob is or isn't following them. The way to do this sort of thing is to say something like "and X to Bob, but only if Father Joe certifies in writing that that Bob is following true Catholic practices". That the courts can deal with since they only have to determine if Father Joe says "yes" or "no". However, if someone challenges Father Joe's determination ("He's wrong! Bob does A and B so Father Joe is totally mistaken saying Bob follows true Catholic practices.") they won't hear the challenge.)

1) I should be able to do whatever I want if I think it's ok.
2) If you don't agree with me, you hate America.
3) All the other ones

Some people have allergies, or histories of serious reactions to other shots, that recommend against getting this one. There aren't a lot of such people, but they do need to be accommodated and can't be banished from society.

I know of people who want to get vaccinated and can't due to medical reasons (such as allergies to vaccine ingredients). However, the ones I know are also diligently masking and avoiding crowded places because those medical reasons also make them especially nervous about catching covid-19.

Look, I got vaccinated as soon as I could through the state's system, and I implore everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible. But it's foolish to think that there does not exist a very small population of people who, for legitimate medical reasons, are advised not to receive this or other vaccines.

Your anecdote about the mask is unfortunate, I'm willing to guess that your neighbor was never advised by a physician that has previously examined them to not wear a mask to protect their own health. But someone who has received sound medical guidance to abstain from something in the interest of their own specific health situation should be able to do so without fear of legal consequence.

I have a coworker who was hospitalized three times due to anaphalaxis after vaccination.

When she took her elderly parents in to get their vaccines, she was asked if she wanted one. She told them about her experience and they gave her a solid nope - even if someone drove her there, they still said it was a bad idea for her.

Her doctor agrees and is willing to put it in writing.

So, yes, they exist, but they are rare and easily documented.

With respect to vaccines in particular, the same SCOTUS decision (Jacobson in 1905) that says states have the power to issue vaccine mandates under threat of penalty (in Jacobson's case it was a $5 fine) also said that medical exemptions to those mandates are required by the Constitution to exist.

Maybe they already are at 100%. TFA said 72.1% answered the survey and 71.3% said they were vaccinated. Assuming they didn't mean 71.3% * 72.1%, that implies a ~99% vaccination rate which can be rounded to 100%.

New England in general is top of the list for percentage of eligible people vaccinated, and MA as a whole is over 70% having at least one shot, close to 65% fully vaccinated (including the late breaking 12-15 age group). Moreover, college educated folks in this region have even higher vaccination rates - around 80%.

So if BU profs and staff are clocking in the 70s, they are typical of the region. If they have lower rates then that is very worrysome.

And the vast majority of hospitalizations (97%) and deaths (>99%) are unvaccinated people.

Delta signals the end of the Fuck Around portion of the program. We are rapidly entering the Find Out phase of the pandemic.