Mayor Explains 12,000 City Workers Must Prove “Deeply-Held, Long-Term Beliefs” to Qualify for Religious Exemptions

By Yehudit Garmaise

New York City’s workforce is 93% vaccinated, however, 12,000 of the city’s 400,000 workers, or 3%, have applied for religious or medical exemptions to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate.

All city workers are eligible to apply for religious and medical accommodations and are allowed to continue working as their requests are processed by the NYPD’s Equal Employment Opportunity Division (EEOD), which the New York Post reported “is expected to shoot down any religious exemption requests from cops who have nothing on file previously, such as requesting special accommodations for religious holidays.”

Police unions, which have also attempted to fight the mandate in court and have, along with FDNY workers, celebrated officers who took early retirement, instead of getting their shots, have encouraged NYPD officers to apply for these accommodations.

Other sources in the NYPD, however, doubt the sincerity of many of the police officers’ perhaps newfound faith.

“All these guys are now giving passages from the Bible, [all of a sudden],” one NYPD source reported, who said that requests for medical accommodations are far more legitimate than most requests for religious accommodations. “We have one female who has lupus. Now that’s different. Lupus and the shot don’t mix.”

This morning, when BoroPark24 asked Mayor de Blasio what kinds of specific things in the lives of police officers and other city workers would prove that they hold true religious objections to vaccination, he said that while thousands of city workers are claiming religious objections to vaccination, most religious leaders support the protective shots.

“Although some religions do take negative views of vaccination, the vast majority of religions leaders have, in fact, called for people to get vaccinated, Mayor de Blasio said. “There is a very small swath of the religious community, where there is a long-standing tradition in which someone can prove a deeply-held, long term belief [against vaccination.]

But random Scripture-quoting will not cut it with the EEOD, which is looking for “a consistent and long-term, long-held belief,” said the mayor, who has said that when requests are rejected, city workers, can appeal the process, but ultimately, will have to choose between their shots and their paychecks.