As millions of infectious-disease go in arms across the county, federal employees who refuse citing a religious exemption are quietly being entered into an online database.
Fox News looked through the records, and thejustice-department” target=”_blank”> Departments of Justice< exemptions. The government does have to track its workforce,” George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley said.
For example, the Department of Transportation database “includes requests for a medical or religious accommodation to decline the infectious-diseasevaccination.”
“Religious exemptions are based on the most personal and profound parts of people’s lives. They invoke these exemptions because they feel they cannot take this vaccine,” Turley added.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S AT-HOME COVID TEST WEBSITE LAUNCHES
Religious rights groups are calling foul about the databases.
“This is concerning because of the type of data that’s being gathered,” Ryan Bangert with Alliance Defending Freedom told Fox News.
A medical technician performs a nasal swab test on a motorist queued up in a line at a COVID-19 testing site near All City Stadium Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021, in southeast Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Some of the databases also collect the vaccination status of all federal employees, not only those who said no for a religious reason. In September, joe-biden” target=”_blank”>President Biden<
Exceptions to the rule continue to exist, including medical reasons and religious exemptions.
Sarah Gonzalez of New York, a Nurse Practitioner, displays a COVID-19 vaccine card at a New York Health and Hospitals vaccine clinic in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)
“This data is being collected on a massive scale, and this is information about citizens’ privately held religious beliefs,” Bangert said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Many of these departments have a public open comment period before the databases go into effect.
