Over 2,000 Los Angeles Police Department workers have sought exemption from coronavirus vaccination on religious grounds. The AP reported that around 2,600 LAPD officers and other staffers sought it before the request deadline.
In August, Los Angeles’s government approved the vaccination ordinance for every city employee, including the law enforcement agency and other US first responders. To comply with the ordinance, employees will need to get their first dosage on or before September 07, 2021, to have enough time for their required second dosage. They will need to wait 14 more days to be deemed fully vaccinated. As for people who seek Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine, city employees have up to October 05, 2021, to get it.
About 6,000 LA City workers are seeking the exemption at a time when 57,000 or more people have at least a single vaccine dosage.
Six LAPD workers have initiated litigation against LAPD’s Chief Officer Michel Moore and Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti. In their lawsuit, the workers are trying to make an LA federal judge overturn the ordinance for LA City employees. Their reason for the attempt is this: vaccination has not proven to have more effectiveness than immunity from earlier coronavirus infections.
As per the complaint, LA cannot mention any piece of evidence that there is more complete or longer-lasting immunity for vaccinated people than those individuals who have recuperated from coronavirus disease.
In the Los Angeles Police Department, 12,315 workers have been completely vaccinated, and they constitute 50% of the agency. Since the beginning of the epidemic, the agency has reported that there have been 3,000 people with positive coronavirus cases.
