Redacted or Otherwise: Religious Exemptions to the COVID-19 Vaccine

This presentation examines over 1,100 letters submitted by American employees in public and private sectors requesting religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine, obtained through public records requests. The thesis differentiates those that were based on truly religious reasons (objections to fetal stem cell lines) from those that were not (e.g., fears over the chemical contents of the vaccine). It has been widely reported that Evangelical Christians are the group most likely to believe in conspiracy theories and reject the vaccine, so the question is: to what extent are the ideas surfacing in COVID-19 vaccine exemption request letters Evangelical? How are these ideas disseminated via the internet and social media? These findings will be used to inform a new framework for evaluating religious exemptions to civil law that is fair to those who have religious beliefs and also does not threaten public health and safety.