It's Curious City editor, Alexandra Solomon.

This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, people working

for the federal government, health care workers, and...

All employers with 100 or more employees that together employ over 80 million workers.

He also explained why he believed this move is necessary.

This is not about freedom or personal choice.

It's about protecting yourself and those around you.

And here in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced that city employees would need to get vaccinated.

The requirement applies to more than 30,000 city workers who now have until October 15th to be fully vaccinated.

And a slew of large corporations and small businesses have also issued a requirement that employees get the vaccine.

It's not just Disney.

You've got big companies like Walmart and Facebook that are saying the same thing.

One listener's been following the rollout of these pandemic-related mandates, and she's noticed

they all include something called a religious exemption.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act allows employees to refuse the vaccine over

sincerely held religious beliefs. She didn't want her name used for this story because vaccines

are a contentious subject in her family. She's been vaccinated for COVID-19, but some

members of her family don't want to get vaccinated. And one relative got a

religious exemption when it was time to vaccinate her kids for school. So she wanted to know more

about how these religious exemptions work, the history behind them, and whether they make a difference

when it comes to how many people get vaccinated.

...