Forty states saw rises in parents citing religious or other personal concerns for not vaccinating their young children.
The number of kids whose caregivers are opting them out of routine childhood vaccines has reached an all-time high, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of children unprotected against preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough.
The report did not dive into the reasons for the increase, but experts said the findings clearly reflect Americans’ growing unease about medicine in general.
“There is a rising distrust in the health care system,” said Dr. Amna Husain, a pediatrician in private practice in North Carolina, as well as a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Vaccine exemptions “have unfortunately trended upward with it.”
Sadly, I would guess that a challenge against religious exemption would be decided against on first amendment grounds by SCOTUS.
Which is madness. If we’re at the point where abortion can’t be found in the federal Constitution, then vaccine opt outs shouldn’t be derived from the first amendment.
You could have just said you don’t understand the first amendment. What exactly do you think the freedom of religion part is about?
Ritual sacrifices of animals and humans are banned in the US in spite of that. Seems fair to ban “religious exemptions” to vaccinations on the same grounds. There’s really no strong theological basis anyway for saying no to vaccines.
People shouldn’t be able to just say “it’s my religion” and get a free pass on anything and everything. If we want to keep the exemptions, then we should require theological basis and proof of “sincerely held belief”.
What if my religion mandates killing everyone over the age of 60?
Could I get away with it because of freedom of religion?