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HARTFORD, Connecticut (LifeSiteNews) – The Archdiocese of Hartford has notified all of its almost 900 staff operating within the extensive archdiocesan school network that they must vaccinated with experimental coronavirus shots within the month or be forced to wear face masks and sanitize after themselves. 

A letter from Father Michael Whyte (click HERE), who serves as the Vicar for the archdiocesan Office of Education, Evangelization and Catechesis (OEEC), was sent to all Catholic school administrators within the archdiocese, informing them of the expectation that “all administrators, teachers and staff members of our schools, as well as volunteers of our schools, will be vaccinated against COVID no later than Sept. 1.” 

Whyte’s encouragement for “vaccine” uptake extended as far as to advise staff on where they might most easily receive one of the experimental jabs. “Many of the major pharmacies, CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens, as well as pharmacies located in major grocery chains have the COVID vaccine in stock, and no appointments are needed,” the priest explained.

Whyte’s letter, obtained by LifeSiteNews, describes the strong wishes of diocesan administrators “that all become vaccinated for the common good,” purportedly to the benefit of “all those that we serve and with whom we work.” Of note is the emphasis on protecting the young “especially,” whom Whyte said, “are vulnerable due to the nature of the Delta variant.”

But recent analyses by some of the world’s leading medical experts suggest that children are, in fact, among the safest groups of people from COVID-19 induced injury.

At the end of July, a group of four internationally renowned scientists, including Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, the former Chair of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Johannes-Gutenberg University of Mainz, authored a paper outlining the reasons why a COVID-19 vaccine is not necessary for adolescents. 

The authors took pains to demonstrate the numerous ways in which children have been shown to be at reduced risk from the virus, including that “the case fatality rate of COVID-19 in the general population is low” and, moreover, that  “COVID-19 has a particularly low prevalence and severity in adolescents.” To this end, the scholars related that within the United States, “and as of April 2020, those younger than 18 years accounted for just 1.7% of all COVID- 19 cases.”

Additionally, the authors caution against the use of the experimental mRNA jabs, namely that of Pfizer, the dangers of which have been recorded in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-run Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Data on the system show that, in the United States alone, Pfizer’s experimental mRNA jab is correlated with some 8,185 deaths and an overall 274,331 injury reports between December 14, 2020, and July 23, 2021. 

Despite the publicly available data on the danger of the COVID jabs, Whyte yet advised that all 854 employees will be expected to subject themselves to the experimental shots, and subsequently “required to show proof that they are fully vaccinated or provide a physician’s letter for a medical exception” before September 1. No information is provided regarding staff who refuse to receive the jab, nor the kind of proof of “vaccination” that will be accepted.

Besides a medical exemption, staff and volunteers may still raise “serious objections to receiving the vaccine,” and are asked to “place those objections in writing and send to Fr. Whyte.” A “report of vaccinated employees from each school” is then to be kept at the OEEC’s main office in Hartford, which Whyte assured “will be kept confidential.”

LifeSiteNews reached out to the Archdiocese of Hartford to ask what conditions might be considered acceptable as a “serious objection” to taking the vaccine, and if those whose reasons are not accepted, whatever they might be, will the employee be permitted to continue working for the archdiocese. No response was received in time for publication.

Whyte’s letter indicated that beside employees who wish to be vaccinated but have not received the full regimen, as well as those with a medical exemption from the jab, “those who have an OEEC approved objection to the vaccine” will be under obligation “to wear a mask in all common areas of the school buildings [and] while in meetings with others.”

In addition to widespread mask enforcement across the archdiocese’s 38 school complexes, the unvaccinated “will be required to sanitize workspaces, office machines and shared equipment.” This mandate, Whyte advised, was made “[e]ffective immediately” upon the letter’s release on July 23.

Students, however, are to be offered reprieve from any vaccine requirement, though they are still “encouraged” to receive the jab, in spite of the connection to abortion

Although vaccinating is optional for students, all 9,188 pupils will be required to wear face masks in some circumstances while attending school, the letter confirmed.

In most cases, and apparently “in conjunction with current CDC guidelines and Connecticut state requirements, children wearing masks in school will be at the discretion of their parents,” the letter advised. All students, even if not required to wear a mask by their parents, are still ordered to bring a face covering to school as it “may be needed on the occasion when prolonged small group work is conducted.”

According to Whyte, “a science lab experiment and small group instruction where three feet separation is not possible” constitutes cause for the use of face masks. He added that the policy “is subject to revision based upon government action and medical science.”

LifeSiteNews asked the archdiocese if children who refused to wear a mask on the required occasions, or whose parents had instructed them to forgo face coverings at all times, would be excluded from such lessons as part of its line of questioning. To this, too, no response was received in time for publishing.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed an executive order protecting students from being forced to don masks while on school property, and “to protect the ability of parents to make decisions regarding the wearing of masks by their children,” he said in a statement on the order. 

DeSantis recognized that “masking children may lead to negative health and societal ramifications,” and “there is no statistically-significant evidence to suggest that counties with mask requirements have fared any better than those without mask requirements during the 2020–2021 school year.” He therefore decreed that COVID-19 safety protocols “[d]o not violate Floridians’ constitutional freedoms” and “[d]o not violate parents’ rights under Florida law to make healthcare decisions for their minor children.”

“I want to see my kids smiling, I want them having fun,” DeSantis added in a separate statement. “We look forward to this upcoming year to be a normal year, to be in person and learn like normal kids.”