I'm personally skeptical of religion in general. There are two religions mentioned in your linked article: Judaism and the Amish religion. That said, Israel has even encouraged Orthodox Jews to take the vaccine. As for the latter, I highly doubt there is any meaningful Amish contingent on campus. Like Cornell, I would also be hard pressed to empathize with an anti-vaxxer claiming religious reasons.
Maybe true about campus, but there are a lot of Amish and Mennonites up there. Cornell has pretty big Ag and Vetinary schools. Would be surprised if there wasn’t some reachout there.
My point isn't that I empathize with any viewpoint, but that on paper it is impossible to decide this. It forces an administrator who doesn't personally know an application to decide their firmness of faith with minimal information.
An Anti-Vaxxer applying under a religious exemption doesn't list "Anti-Vaxxer" on their application.
An interesting thing about the Amish is that they don't generally have a religious objection to vaccines. Low vaccination rates in the past in Amish communities have generally been due to concerns about the vaccines themselves. They might feel that the number and timing of the standard childhood vaccinations would overwhelm the child's immune system, for example.
These beliefs were wrong, but they were wrong due to ignorance not due to stupidity. So when, say, something like measles would break out in an Amish community that had low measles vaccinations the doctors treating it could explain why the reasons the Amish gave for not being vaccinated were wrong, the Amish would understand this, and they'd get vaccinated to help stop the outbreak.
But with COVID the Amish are giving the same stupid reasons that the social media disinformation campaigns are giving. That raises the question of where they got those reasons from.
Are there a bunch of Amish with smartphones surreptitiously hidden at the bottom of their sock drawers who sneak out to the barn to furtively access social media?
