Many SC residents are requesting COVID-19 vaccine exemptions. How is DHEC responding?
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COVID-19 spikes again in South Carolina
Here’s the latest on the omicron variant surge, COVID-19 guidance and more in South Carolina.
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With the prospect of a federal COVID-19 vaccine requirement for large employers looming, some unvaccinated South Carolinians are looking for ways to hold onto their jobs without rolling up their sleeves.
The desire for an inoculation workaround has spurred a surge in COVID-19 vaccine card forgeries among those willing to break the law to avoid a shot and an even larger increase in the number of people requesting vaccination exemptions, state health officials said.
“We have received an incredible amount of requests for exemptions,” said Danielle Maynard, an attorney for the Department of Health and Environmental Control. “I think just like the forged vaccine cards, it’s an issue that we’re going to receive more and more inquiries about.”
The agency does not grant workplace COVID-19 vaccine exemptions — only employers can do that — but that hasn’t stopped residents from showing up at local health departments and requesting, or in some cases, demanding them.
DHEC’s COVID-19 incident commander Louis Eubank said he suspects people are misconstruing information on the agency’s website about immunization exemptions for schoolchildren and assuming incorrectly that adults can request exemptions from the coronavirus shot.
Parents in South Carolina may request non-COVID-19 immunization exemptions for their school age children on either religious or medical grounds, but not for personal reasons. Exemptions do not apply to the COVID-19 vaccine because it is not required for school attendance.
Religious exemption forms are available exclusively at county public health offices. Medical exemptions are granted upon the completion of a DHEC form by a licensed medical professional. Adults are not subject to any immunization exemption.
The confusion over COVID-19 vaccine exemptions has led to some tense conversations at health departments across the state and left local DHEC workers concerned about confrontations with angry residents, officials said.
Residents seeking religious exemptions at some rural Lowcountry health departments have grown so belligerent and threatening toward staff that police were called, DHEC’s chief counsel for public health Will Britt said.
“The employees that went through those instances were scared,” he said. “They were scared to walk to their cars at night for fear that this same individual may come back and confront them.”
As a result, the agency has retrained employees on how to keep themselves safe at work and is planning to beef up security measures at its local health departments.
”We know people are showing up at health departments and are asking or demanding for those exemptions,” Maynard said. “It has caused us to relook at what safety protocols we have in place so that our staff feel like they are protected from individuals who may come in and make threats or act inappropriately.”
One possibility under consideration involves installing an emergency system on workers’ phones so they can alert others they are in danger with the push of a button.
DHEC also updated its website to clarify that the agency does not offer COVID-19 vaccine exemptions to adults whose employers require them to get a shot and has no role in an employer’s decision to mandate vaccines.
A growing number of South Carolina employers, including hospitals and a prominent local pharmaceutical company, have started requiring their workers to get coronavirus shots in recent months.
The number of South Carolinians required by their jobs to get a jab would increase markedly if President Joe Biden’s plan to require that all companies with 100 or more employees ensure those workers are vaccinated or tested weekly comes to pass.
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