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I believe I have addressed all your suggestions - here’s the updated:

XXX company has directed me to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine, or suffer adverse employment action, up to and including termination. However, I cannot receive a COVID-19 vaccine because to do so would violate my sincerely held religious beliefs, which are outlined as follows:

Religious Objection to Use of Fetal Cells in Testing and Development

My Christian faith and Biblical principles teach that life has worth to God in all stages, from conception to death. God has created mankind in His image (ESV, Gen 1:27). In Jeremiah 1:5, the Bible says that God knows us even while we are in our mother’s womb. Psalm 139:16 says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them”. Psalm 139:13 says, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”

Fetal stem cell lines have been used in the development of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, and fetal stem cell lines have been used in the testing of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. According to James Lawler, MD, the fetal cell line HEK 293 was used during the research and development phase, and these cells are descended from tissue taken from a 1973 abortion (2021). Regardless of when the abortion happened, I believe there is no statute of limitations on the sinfulness of the original abortion. It does not matter if the abortion took place in 1973 or 2020. While many products and medications have been tested this way, I also avoid them when made aware of that history. It is a matter of conscience for me to refuse to consume or inject any substance into my body that has been developed in a way that is unethical based on Biblical principles.

Religious Objection to Putting a Potentially Harmful Substance in My Body

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and as such, I should honor God with my body. This includes eating right, exercising, and abstaining from illegal drugs and any other substance harmful to me. I believe the Covid-19 vaccine is potentially detrimental to my body.

This vaccine is experimental, and no long-term studies have been completed. Historically vaccines have been made by injecting an attenuated virus into the body to help it create an immune response. However, the Covid vaccines are not created the same way; they use genetic engineering. According to the Mayo Clinic, “They use messenger RNA, which tricks the cell to make one protein of the virus, the so-called spike.” This type of vaccine has never been used in humans before, and no one knows what the long-term effects will be. In addition, there has not been adequate testing on these vaccines. Vaccines typically take over ten years to develop, including three stages of trials, to gain FDA approval.

Figure 1 from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database shows the Covid vaccine adverse reactions (798,634 reports) in 2021 compared to all other vaccines in the past 30 years. Several studies, including a Harvard study, confirm that only 1% of adverse vaccine events are reported to VAERS (Hendrie, 2021). Historically, other vaccines have been pulled from the market with just a few hundred adverse events.

Figure 1: History of Vaccine Adverse Reaction Reports
(picture of VAERS graph)

For my age group (20-29), VAERS lists 139,498 total adverse reactions to the Covid Vaccine, including over 1,000 cases of myocarditis (with a 50% 5-year survival rate) and 152 deaths (VAERS, 2021). Additionally, the World Health Organization database lists 902,896 adverse reactions to the Covid vaccine for those between the ages of 18-44 (Vigiaccess.org). In contrast, only 199 people in my age bracket have died from Covid in Georgia, and most of those had risk factors. That is less than .02% of the total 1,253,140 Georgia Covid cases.

Not only is the safety of the vaccine questionable, but the effectiveness is as well. The effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing Covid declines over time. A recent study in medRxiv showed that all three vaccines showed waning effectiveness after six months - Johnson & Johnson dropped from 88% to 3%, Pfizer dropped from 91% to 50%, and Moderna from 92% to 64% (Cohn et al., 2021). As a result, boosters will potentially be required on an ongoing basis, and every subsequent shot will increase the risk of side effects. There is also no evidence that these vaccines will work on any future variants that appear.

Not only does the vaccine not prevent you from getting or spreading Covid, but it is also not as protective as advertised against hospitalization or death. A recent UC Davis study showed that there was no significant difference in Covid viral load between vaccinated and unvaccinated (for the Delta variant) (Fell, 2021). Comparing hospitalization data of the vaccinated vs. the unvaccinated is revealing as well. As of October 15, there have been 5,490 hospitalizations out of 270,669 Covid cases in the 20-29 age bracket in Georgia, a rate of 2.0% (Georgia Department of Public Health, 2021a). For the vaccinated, there are 324 hospitalizations of 12,331 breakthrough cases of Covid for those aged 18-34, at a rate of 2.6% (Georgia Department of Public Health, 2021b). The fatality rate for unvaccinated persons in Georgia is 1.29% for all age groups; however, the fatality rate for vaccinated is 1.35% *(2021b).

Based on the experimental nature of the vaccine, the lack of long-term studies, the risk of adverse events and the lack of efficacy of the vaccine (to either prevent the virus or severe outcome), I believe my risk from the vaccine is higher than my risk of Covid-19. This is especially true with the declining cases and waning Covid wave in Georgia. Taking unnecessary health risks is not something that is supported by common sense nor my Christian faith.

Anecdotally, I have done contract work daily in healthcare environments since the beginning of the pandemic, including in Covid wards and sometimes in Covid patient rooms, and have had close contact with several Covid positive people. I have never gotten sick. My God-given immune system appears to be working regarding this virus, and I do not want to compromise that. This same robust immune system allowed me to continue working on xxxx healthcare accounts when others in the company were out sick, or unable to work. 81 research studies support the naturally acquired immunity to Covid-19 (Alexander, 2021). I take care of my health with a good diet and exercise, and I do not want to put my health at risk with an experimental vaccine.

Religious Objection to Violation of Liberty of Conscience

Finally, I believe that the Bible teaches the importance of work and providing for family (1 Timothy 5:8). Being forced to take a vaccine to be able to work is coercion. Supporting these mandates by compliance only grants those who would oppress others more power. As a Christian, I am against oppression and tyranny in all forms. Vaccine mandates also violate my liberty of conscience, which is granted by God and not by the government. The idea of the liberty of conscience helped shape religious liberty in the United States and was foundational to Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. This statue was a forerunner to the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty (Purves, 2021).

In summary, my request for a religious exemption to these vaccines is based on my beliefs against abortion (and use of fetal stem cells in development and testing of vaccines), my beliefs in a healthy lifestyle, and my belief that my liberty of conscience is given by God and not man.

xxxx has some difficult decisions to make, to weigh the cost of losing client contracts versus losing hard-working employees. The bigger question that one must consider setting aside financial gain or loss, is right and wrong. Is it ethical for any company to make medical demands on their employees with an experimental vaccine (still under EUA**)? Would periodic testing be a less invasive way to meet client requirements? Companies should consider these mandates carefully because there is a striking similarity between what is happening to unvaccinated Americans now, and the treatment of certain citizens historically by totalitarian governments to subvert any opposition. Congress, Federal Court system, USPS, WHO, Pfizer, and other government agencies are except from the mandate (which has not been coded into law, incidentally) they seek to impose on American workers. It is time for individuals as well as businesses to choose which side they will be on. Will they support unconstitutional government mandates in other areas? Where is the line drawn? As founding father, John Adams, said, Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

Sincerely,

xxxxxx

References:

Alexander, P. (2021, October 17). 81 Research Studies Affirm Naturally Acquired Immunity to Covid-19: Documented, Linked, and Quoted. Brownstone Institute. https://brownstone.org/articles/79-research-studies-affirm-naturally-acquired-immunity-to-covid-19-documented-linked-and-quoted/

English Standard Version Bible (2001). Good News Publishers. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/English-Standard-Version-ESV-Bible

Fell, A. (2021, October 4). Viral Loads Similar Between Vaccinated and Unvaccinated People. UC Davis. https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/covid-19/news/viral-loads-similar-between-vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-people

Georgia Department of Public Health. (2021a, October 18). COVID-19 Case Demographics . https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report

Georgia Department of Public Health. (2021a, October 18). COVID-19 Breakthrough Case Demographics. https://dph.georgia.gov/document/document/covid-19-among-fully-vaccinated-people-graphic/download

Hendrie, E. (2021, April 5). New Study Confirms the VAERS System is Only Reporting Approximately 1% of Anaphylaxis from COVID-19 Vaccines. Great Mountain Publishing. https://greatmountainpublishing.com/2021/04/05/new-study-confirms-the-vaers-system-is-only-reporting-approximately-1-of-anaphylaxis-from-covid-19-vaccines/

Lawler, J. (2021). You asked, we answered: Do the COVID-19 vaccines contain aborted fetal cells? Nebraska Medicine. https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/you-asked-we-
answered-do-the-covid-19-vaccines-contain-aborted-fetal-cells

Mayo Clinic. Interpreting the News: COVID-19 Experimental Vaccines. https://discoverysedge.mayo.edu/2020/11/11/interpreting-the-news-covid-19-experimental-vaccine/

Purves, B. (2021). Vaccine Mandates and the Christian’s Liberty of Conscience: From 2021 to 1721 and Back Again. Founders Ministries. https://founders.org/2021/08/13/vaccine-mandates-and-the-christians-liberty-of-conscience-from-2021-to-1721-and-back-again/

Cohn, B., Cirillo, P, Murphy, C., Nickilou, K, & Wallace, A. (2021,October 13). Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections in 620,000 U.S. Veterans, February 1, 2021 to August 13, 2021. medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.13.21264966

Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) (2021, October 8). VAERS COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports. https://openvaers.com/covid-data

World Health Organization (WHO). Covid-19 Vaccine. WHO Collaborative Center for International Drug Monitoring. http://vigiaccess.org/

Other supporting information:

Interview with Dr. David Martin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Rocco Galati and Judy Mickovits PhD
https://www.bitchute.com/video/6LYagqLH5SGa/

Dr. Peter McCullough discussion of Covid-19 vaccines and concerns https://brightlightnews.com/winning-the-war-against-therapeutic-nihilism-dr-peter-mccullough-2021-10-01/

* These percentages were calculated using 10,710 deaths divided by total cases of 828,072 for the unvaccinated, and 857 deaths divided by 63,298 cases of the vaccinated per the GA DPH vaccination breakthrough data. This data includes cases from January 2 until October 15, but vaccines were not widely available until April. This explains the large discrepancy in raw numbers.