The Biden Administrations COVID vaccine mandate for healthcare workers does not follow HHS guidelines since only medical and religious exemptions are allowed. The HHS guidelines protect reasons of conscience and moral objections to medical procedures for Healthcare Workers. An Oxford University article on public health ethics argues against only allowing non-medical exemptions for religious reasons. This also goes against more tolerant healthcare protocols such as in Iceland, where there were no vaccine mandates or passports. Iceland has high vaccination rates and death rates remain low. However, places like Zimbabwe also have had low deaths even though only 6 percent of the population has received the COVID Vaccination. Both Zimbabwe and Iceland have had outbreaks where the death toll was zero. Zimbabwe’s population is 14.86 million while Iceland’s population is 366,425.Â
Links:
HHS Guidelines:Â Conscience Protections for Health Care Providers
https://www.hhs.gov/conscience/conscience-protections/index.html
Oxford Article: Improving Nonmedical Vaccine Exemption Policies: Three Case StudiesÂ
https://academic.oup.com/phe/article/10/3/225/2993965#99496367
Iceland Article:Â Why Iceland Is Fighting A COVID Surge Without Vaccine Mandates
https://worldcrunch.com/coronavirus/covid-vaccine-mandate-iceland
AP News: Scientists mystified, wary, as Africa avoids COVID disaster
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-pandemics-united-nations-fcf28a83c9352a67e50aa2172eb01a2f
