Kimberlee Loisel said she doesn’t think God wants her to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
“I do believe that it’s not right for me to put this in my body,” she told The Sun Herald last week at a protest against the federal COVID-19 vaccine requirement. “I’ve prayed about it, and this is not something that God wants me to do.”
Loisel has worked for 18 years at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi — a rocket engine test site for NASA where all federal contract employees are required to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 or face termination.
In response, many have filed a request for religious exemption.
It’s not the first time the country has experienced an uptick in religious exemptions amid a viral outbreak. In 2018, health officials in South Carolina saw more parents claiming religious exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children against measles, which was making an unexpected comeback in the U.S., The State reported.
At the time, doctors theorized the rise in exemptions stemmed from a spread of misinformation causing vaccine hesitancy.
Now, amid the release of President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirement for companies with more than 100 employees — which goes into effect on Jan. 4 — interest in religious exemptions has spiked again.
Here’s what federal authorities and legal experts say about how it relates to COVID-19 vaccine mandates:
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