Exempt from the Rules.

• Author: Orient, Jane M.
• Position: Vaccination exemptions

AN EXEMPTION is something people get from military service or jury duty--a civil obligation that serves the common good, that is, the good of everyone. Everyone benefits when the country is secure from a hostile invasion, and from having a guaranteed right to trial by jury. Not everyone is fit to serve, and some have more important obligations, or conscientious objections. Therefore, we allow for exemptions even though people have a civic duty to participate in essential functions if they can.

For medical treatments, the person prescribing the treatment must get permission. Operating on a person, injecting him, or even touching him without permission is assault and battery, except when there is a life-threatening emergency or an imminent danger to others. One does not need an exemption to forgo a medical treatment. One simply declines to get it--except with mandated vaccines.

Even if theoretically allowed, vaccine exemptions may be impossible to obtain. In some schools or enterprises, virtually all medical exemptions are denied. The person may have to present documentation of an almost fatal reaction to previously receiving a component of the vaccine. Many doctors refuse to help because of the realistic fear of being de-licensed if they support "too many" or "inappropriate" exemptions. It may be easier to get a religious exemption, but one may have to prove the validity or sincerity of one's faith. Who has the legitimate authority to judge that?

This situation is backwards. For a prescription drug or many lab tests, you must have a physician's order. The doctor is obliged legally to have a patient-physician relationship with you and to be responsible for side effects or for following up on test results, but who is ordering your COVID jab or your COVID test? Is that person qualified to be your doctor? Even if he is, you are under no obligation to follow your physician's advice, and patients frequently do not. Who gave officials or employers or pharmacies an exemption from getting a physician's order?

I remember the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when it was difficult to get a test done. You had to be sure the patient understood the ramifications of a positive test and signed a special form. You could not do a test to find out whether a nurse who got a needlestick injury had been exposed to AIDS, or whether special precautions...