Thousands of San Diego County healthcare workers demand vaccine exemptions

President Biden’s new coronavirus vaccination mandate requires all federal workers and contractors, including all healthcare workers across the country, to receive their vaccines or lose their jobs.

But California’s evolving experience with its own vaccine mandate shows that there is another way to stay unvaccinated.

Administration officials said Thursday that the new federal immunization program will allow anyone to apply for an exemption on “narrow” religious grounds or if they have a qualifying disability, similar shortcomings in California, which announced a warrant. vaccination for healthcare workers on August 1. 5 which takes effect on September 30.

A survey of San Diego County medical providers last week shows that thousands of people are asking for such exemptions, most citing religious reasons.

Sharp HealthCare, the region’s largest healthcare system, said it received more than 700 requests for religious exemptions, UC San Diego Health receiving 610 and Scripps Health more than 400. These figures represent about 3% of the workforce. total for each organization, which ranges from about 16,000 to about 22,000 workers.

Kaiser Permanente San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital did not report how many of its employees filled out exemption forms, but Palomar Health in North County said it only received 22.

Dr Ghazala Sharieff, senior vice president and medical director of Scripps, said concerns about stem cells and vaccine development were the most frequently cited reason for a religious exemption.

“We also get our share of people saying ‘my body is my temple,’” Sharieff said.

Sharp’s chief operating officer Brett McClain said the outage looks familiar.

“I would say over 90 percent of our religious exemptions cite Christian reasons around stem cells,” McClain said. “The rest goes in the direction of” I control my body. “”

Malia Wylie, a medical assistant in the orthopedics department of a large local health care provider she declined to name, said she was recently given a religious exemption although obtaining approval required that it persists.

“In my religion, what my conscience tells me is to move forward in the way that I would like to have my body as a temple,” she said. “I don’t believe in the fetal cells that they made these vaccines with.

“The ingredients, I am not in tune with them. Long-term side effects have not yet been determined.

Scientists, however, have repeatedly indicated that long-term side effects are generally not associated with vaccines. Most appear within two months of administration.

On the issue of stem cells, a plethora of scientific sources around the world say the same thing: Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines, but they themselves do not contain any stem cell material. Cells collected decades ago can be cultured, allowing them to continue to grow indefinitely, providing a source of human cells that is used throughout biomedical research. The cells used today, however, are several generations removed from those originally obtained after elective abortions.

After reviewing the evidence and studying the vaccines in detail, the Vatican said in a statement on December 17, 2020 that “all vaccinations known to be clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience with the certainty that the use of such vaccines does not constitute a formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in the production of vaccines are derived.

The United States Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Freedom Commission made a similar statement on December 15, 2020.

Wylie said she is a non-denominational Christian, adding that her church, which she declined to name but attends regularly, supports her choice to seek and receive an exemption.

Healthcare providers are now placed in the position of deciding whether or not to grant such requests.

It’s a decision, Sharieff said, that doesn’t have clear rules. How does a company whose mission is to heal its patients confidently judge which stated religious reservations are genuine and which are not?

“We’re going to need some clarification from the state on how to handle this situation, but we haven’t received any yet,” Sharieff said.

McClain said he doesn’t expect to receive walk orders from regulators, which likely means many religious exemption requests will simply be approved.

“It will probably be us who will make the decision based on what is presented to us, and it will be difficult for us to stand in the way of someone’s professed religious belief,” he said.

The state’s mandate requires people in healthcare who are granted exemptions to be tested for the coronavirus twice a week if they work in clinical roles and wear masks.

When asked if such guidelines would be forthcoming, the California Department of Public Health said in a statement it did not intend to further clarify what constitutes a valid religious exemption, noting that the ‘state ordinance “does not prevent employers from imposing more stringent requirements.” The California Hospital Association is also disengaged, stating in its own email that while requests for religious exemption are likely “happening statewide,” the organization has “no data or insight into the question”.

It is not at all clear that California hospitals can afford to deny exemption requests even if they saw a clear reason for doing so. All are currently facing staff shortages caused by pandemic fatigue, an increase in demand for services and the recent migration of temporary health workers from the country to southern states where the COVID pandemic has been fiercer.

Medical exemption requests are also a valid reason for staying unvaccinated, although there may be more stringent and quicker scientific reasons why the conditions qualify.

Sharp, McClain said, has received 100 requests for medical exemptions in addition to 700 based on religious beliefs. But campaigns to vaccinate employees have simultaneously been relatively successful, dropping the organization’s overall vaccination rate from 80 to 88 percent.

The really worrying group, he added, are the approximately 1,300 employees who have yet to prove they are vaccinated and have not requested any sort of exemption. After September 30, he said, the state mandate will require those employees, who work in clinical and non-clinical roles, to be placed on administrative leave without pay.

They would have a month to get vaccinated before suffering the ultimate consequence of their careers.

“Based on state orders, after that, their jobs will be terminated,” McClain said. “It will certainly be a difficult situation as we are already at a difficult time with staffing in different ways.”

Sharieff noted that the final vaccination numbers for the end of the month would essentially be decided this week, given that there is a three-week wait between the first and second dose of two-dose vaccines.

The organization, she said, has offered supplemental immunization clinics at its facilities to try to make it easier for the 15% of its workforce who are not yet fully immunized.

While 500 employees are currently waiting to receive their second vaccine, there were only about 100 takers last week for 790 available vaccine slots reserved for employees for their first vaccine.