The University at Buffalo boasts a 99% vaccination rate on their website, which is more than any other SUNY school. The SUNY system issued a mandate before the semester began requiring students to be fully vaccinated in order to attend in-person classes. “Officials say the high vaccination rate is a testament to students’ dedication and compliance[…]” claims the article on the front page of the University website, which is true, and I think it’s warranted that we all pat ourselves on the back for a moment. However, if you were to walk past The Commons on any given afternoon this past week, you would’ve seen a certain UB club expressing their freedom of speech in the form of signs that read “EDUCATE DON’T MANDATE” and ironically, “MY BODY, MY CHOICE.”
The group is a chapter of a conservative libertarian organization by the name of Turning Point USA, which if you haven’t heard of before, is another media-hub, with a selection of shows and articles aimed to “enlighten, educate, and entertain.” For example, their show Freedom Seeds attempts to aid college kids in winning the “culture war on campus.” The college chapters are part of their activism, and they teach you how to get started with your own chapter right on their website, and if you were wondering, Donald Trump Jr. loves them, and in his words, is convinced that their work “will win back the future of America.”
When I was getting lunch with my friend after class last week, we passed by their set up and decided that after we ate we would have to go over and talk. Both of us pre-law students passionately studying government, we had to see for ourselves what they had to say when asked about their signs and their organization. The one student we decided to talk to held one of the “educate don’t mandate” signs, and informed us that he himself was actually unvaccinated, and he believes it is wrong to force people to get the vaccine. He stressed the importance of educating people about the vaccine, which I can get on board with, but he talked about how the vaccine itself is often worse than COVID, comparing the illness to the common cold. He also focused a lot on choice, and how government shouldn’t have a say in someone’s personal medical decisions.
Off the bat, there is a lot to pick apart here. Education is important, however the information is readily available online. However, there is no research you could do on your laptop in a few hours, weeks, or months that measures up to decades of studies performed by people with degrees in biology and medicine. At the end of the day, you are not a doctor, or a scientist, and your “research” does not compare to theirs. Additionally, data shows that COVID is far worse than the common cold, and we learned that very early on into the pandemic. If you claim to be doing research, this is what you should be finding. If you are going to talk about freedom of choice, surely your stance on abortion would match that sentiment? But no, of course not. It’s funny how conservatives try to brand themselves as the local ones. All of this aside, the answer he gave that bothered me the most was in response to my question of how he was able to go to school if he was unvaccinated. How did one become part of the 1% of unvaccinated students at UB? Well, in his case, it was a loophole called Religious Exemption.
I had never heard of this before, so upon returning home to my computer I Googled it. According to an article published on Harvard Law’s Bill of Health, the Religious Exemption works off of the core American value of religious freedom, and enables anyone who believes the vaccine goes against their religion to opt out of receiving it. However, as the article points out, this is very difficult to police. It is known that many people involved in the anti-vax movement are lying to receive this exemption. I would honestly argue that this exemption should not exist, and I will explain why.
Religion does not have a place in government. As a country, we attempted to settle this with the separation of church and state. We kept religious preaching out of public schools with the Lemon Laws, and upheld the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Although lately, religion has been brought back onto the table in increasing frequency. While freedom of religion is a core American value I truly believe in, I also believe in the importance of keeping religion separate from governing practices and political policy. Religious beliefs should influence these things as little as possible. With anti-vaxers claiming religious exemption to anti-choice legislation being passed in Texas, the separation between Church and State is being chipped away. People are using religion as a political tool. Politicians allow it to influence their policy and then claim they are logically oriented. So, I ask, what does this mean for the Establishment Clause? For people so worked up about the Constitution, you would think they have a firm belief in that clause, too. If you’re going to call yourself a textualist, you have to embrace all parts of the document as truth.
Nowhere in any religious text does the word vaccine come up. Almost all common religious long precede the vaccine. Yet somehow, college kids are dodging vaccine mandates on the grounds of religion. These students were unmasked and proud of their lack of vaccination, meanwhile they endanger the thousands of students on campus every day. The students are not the only ones using this loophole. Many anti-vaxers hold webinars, link articles, and post about how to make sure you get the religious exemption to get out of vaccinating yourself or your kids. Even so politicians and lawyers advocate for its use. I just don’t understand how faith should excuse you from a vaccine. Even if the Bible, or any other text, suggested that you shouldn’t be vaccinated, why should that effect vaccine mandates? The government attempts to make the vaccine more appealing by incentivizing it, while private and public institutions alike create the mandates these activists are so against. These things all have everything to do with public safety and nothing to do with religion. The incentives and mandates are based in science. They exist because of research done by actual professionals, not just some guy on their laptop reading sketchy accounts of bad vaccine experiences.
The question is this: how much are we going to allow religion to permeate public policy? As always, if you have something to add to this conversation, don’t hesitate to DM me. Especially if you think I’m wrong! I want to learn, so show me. Maybe you really do know more than the worlds’ greatest doctors, or maybe you really believe in faith-based politics. Either way, I want to hear it. Head over to my instagram @a_lecroy.