NEW YORK- AUGUST 31st, 2021— On Thursday August 26th, NY’s Department of Health (DoH) met and determined that a vaccine mandate for health care workers would exclude a religious exemptions.
This determination came from the DoH. In response to an Executive order passed by Governer Coumo prior to his resignation. Under the executive order health care workers have to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
NY has left religious exemptions out of previous vaccine mandates. Such as the mandate for measles in 2019. This was largely the basis for excluding religious exemption in the new order.
In the words of Vanessa Murphy, Department of Legal Affairs :
“We’re not constitutionally required to provide a religious exemption.”
The decision by the department is facing scrutiny and may result in lawsuits.