National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head and chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci argued Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that people “confuse” religious with philosophical objections to vaccinations.
Fauci added that “precious few religions” address vaccination.
Anchor Dana Bash said, “So some states and cities like where we are in Washington D.C., they are seeing thousands of new requests for religious exemptions to coronavirus. Do you know of any major religion, and this is getting a vaccine for the coronavirus? Do you know any major religion that opposes a vaccine? How worried are you that people are abusing religious and medical exemptions in order to not get a vaccine that either the local government or their company requires?”
Fauci said, “Well, Dana, we looked at this years ago when people were claiming religious exemptions to avoid getting measles vaccines when we had the measles outbreak in certain clusters of under-vaccinated people. There are precious few religions that say you cannot do that. Very, very few. Literally less than a handful. But people, you know, sometimes confuse a philosophical objection with a religious objection. when you talk about established religions, there are so few that will not allow you to be vaccinated.”
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