#186
Religious Leaders Support Vaccine Acceptance, Religious Exemption Requests Rise
Vaccination issues remain at the center of preoccupations, alongside intense attention to the omicron variant. In a
December 10 letter, global leaders from 115 faith-based organizations called on World Trade Organization (WTO) member countries to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines, stressing that receiving the vaccine is the best way to protect against the spread of the omicron variant.
European churches are also encouraging people to get vaccinated as the threat of the omicron variant spreads. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, S.J., president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (EU), and Reverend Christian Krieger, president of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), also highlighted vaccination and observing “necessary sanitary measures.”
In the United States, however, a
World Economic Forum article reported that applications for
religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccines are rising, especially from employees who are required to get the vaccine in order to work. A
poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and Interfaith Youth Core found that many
Americans are worried that too many people will use religious exemptions in order to avoid the vaccine, despite the fact that a majority of Americans don’t believe getting vaccinated goes against their religion and a majority of religious leaders support the vaccine.
A
World Vision study “The Impact of COVID-19 on the Peace Building Activities of Local Faith Actors in Sri Lanka, August 2021” explored the role of religious leaders in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. Religion, it argues, has played a positive role in helping with public health information, countering misinformation, building productive relationships with the government, and using religious spaces for treatment and vaccination centers. The study further showed that including religious leaders in efforts to slow the spread of the virus had a positive impact on mitigating the adversity that materialized with the COVID-19 pandemic. A
study by Mohit Chandra at Cornell University showed that there was an uptick in Islamophobia on social media after the outbreak of the pandemic. Hashtags such as #coronajihad and #tablighijamaatvirus emerged on Twitter after the Tablighi Jamaat gathering created a rise in COVID-19 cases in March 2020. In Sri Lanka, leaders from Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian groups were successful in restoring burial rights for Muslims who died of COVID-19 and reversing the government mandate to cremate all of those who died from the virus.
For religious minorities in particular, the ability to get the vaccine is more difficult, especially if religious marginality intersects with other factors such as race, class, and ethnicity, according to an
evidence review by SSHAP. In
Zambia, economic factors such as a lack of vaccine resources, vaccine hesitancy, and the threat of other diseases such as TB and HIV affect the health care system’s ability to give vaccines and community members' ability to receive them. SSHAP’s advice for overcoming vaccine hesitancy among religious minorities is to “work proactively and inclusively with faith leaders'' and “recognise that religious authority is one of many authoritative sources of knowledge and influence in the community.”
With the ongoing threat of the omicron variant, creating partnerships between religious leaders, health care providers, and governments will remain important in order to push for an increase in vaccine roll-out and justice for the religiously marginalized.
This weekly highlight will be the last in 2021. We plan to resume on January 5, 2022, and wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday season!
