Required forms asked the state employees to affirm or agree that they “have never received a vaccine or medicine from a health care provider as an adult.”
Washington State workers across multiple agencies on Monday received forms for requesting a religious exemption for the now mandatory coronavirus vaccines. The forms asked the state employees to affirm or agree that they “have never received a vaccine or medicine from a health care provider as an adult.”
Since Washington Democrat Governor Jay Inslee’s announcement mandating vaccines for all state workers including teachers and re-imposing indoor mask mandates earlier this month, confusion has swirled around Inslee’s exemption for “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
According to Brandi Kruse of Q13 Fox, other religious exemption forms such as ones from the Capital Region Educational Services District demand a signed statement from one’s religious leader attesting to their faith. Kruse noted that Inslee’s office said this particular form was not issued by the state.
In a previous interview with Kruse, Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal claimed that “There are no forces out there that are going to force people to go document the church they belong to, or get a signature from a member of the clergy or their synagogue or their mosque. There’s no role for us in that we will listen to employees who say, ‘I have a deeply held conviction about this core practice and I don’t take shots’ or ‘I’m not taking the shot’ and I’m going to honor that.”
