Posted on May 22, 2019
Opinion | Infecting People Isn’t a Religious Right
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It’s no coincidence that measles is spreading across the United States after a decade in which the number of parents claiming exemption for their children from vaccination has grown. The outbreak has been most intense in New York, particularly in deeply insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and upstate that have been vulnerable to misinformation and resistant to vaccination.
To halt the spread of the disease, bills in the State Senate and Assembly would prevent parents from claiming that their religious beliefs exempt them from legal requirements that their children be vaccinated before going to school. The American Academy of Pediatrics has made the elimination of such nonmedical exemptions its top priority this year.
The legislation would allow exemptions only if a licensed doctor certified that the immunization was detrimental to the child’s health, as is the case in current law.
Action on these sensible bills has stalled, however, just weeks before legislators leave for the summer — even as the latest cases of the highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease were diagnosed in New York last week.
To halt the spread of the disease, bills in the State Senate and Assembly would prevent parents from claiming that their religious beliefs exempt them from legal requirements that their children be vaccinated before going to school. The American Academy of Pediatrics has made the elimination of such nonmedical exemptions its top priority this year.
The legislation would allow exemptions only if a licensed doctor certified that the immunization was detrimental to the child’s health, as is the case in current law.
Action on these sensible bills has stalled, however, just weeks before legislators leave for the summer — even as the latest cases of the highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease were diagnosed in New York last week.
Opinion | Infecting People Isn’t a Religious Right
Posted from nytimes.com
Children
Medical
Health
Religion
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 4
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Once more, I'm prevented from reading the source material without subscribing...oh well, guess I'll wing it.
Nothing contained within my Christian faith presented any roadblocks in vaccinating my child... we studied the facts, consulted with our pediatrician...our little guy got the needle like his daddy before him. I guess I can see some issues, some faiths would have... but I also have to assume there are any number of options to comply with being Kosher, Halal...etc...etc. I mean, I served with Jewish folks, Christian folks, even Buddhist folks...nobody refused the standard package that I recall.
I can't claim to be an expert on Orthodox Judaism, but I suspect this whole issue revolves around two significant questions which have absolutely zip to do with "religion"... trust, and control.
I'm just old enough to remember when information was harder to access. If the doctor told your parents something was good for you (fluoridation, Deep-Woods Off, Kraft Cheese and Macaroni), they went with it. We also believed everything on the Nightly News, and regarded the "After School Special" as akin to mandatory reading. Things have changed, and people can pull up lots of "facts" they didn't have to do any real work to obtain, let alone understand. People are afraid to swim for fear of "flesh eating bacteria"... afraid to drink a diet soda for fear their brains will dissolve...and afraid to trust doctors who may/may not be "burned out, ethically bankrupt husks of their former selves in the thrall of megalithic drug companies".
In the midst of this paranoia, comes the suggestion that "government's going to MAKE me do this to my CHILD!"...because of any number of far-fetched reasons. It sounds nuts, but if one is living in their own head, constantly supplied the tripe coming from virtually every media source in existence...it's kinda easy to understand too.
It probably doesn't help if someone then suggests we're going to see the plague return... all because of "religion"; just sayin'.
Education is the key; that, and convincing folks to have discussions with professionals they do trust. Before we start saying, "pass a law"... let's get some positive facts out there, calm the panic, and get people back on bubble.
Nothing contained within my Christian faith presented any roadblocks in vaccinating my child... we studied the facts, consulted with our pediatrician...our little guy got the needle like his daddy before him. I guess I can see some issues, some faiths would have... but I also have to assume there are any number of options to comply with being Kosher, Halal...etc...etc. I mean, I served with Jewish folks, Christian folks, even Buddhist folks...nobody refused the standard package that I recall.
I can't claim to be an expert on Orthodox Judaism, but I suspect this whole issue revolves around two significant questions which have absolutely zip to do with "religion"... trust, and control.
I'm just old enough to remember when information was harder to access. If the doctor told your parents something was good for you (fluoridation, Deep-Woods Off, Kraft Cheese and Macaroni), they went with it. We also believed everything on the Nightly News, and regarded the "After School Special" as akin to mandatory reading. Things have changed, and people can pull up lots of "facts" they didn't have to do any real work to obtain, let alone understand. People are afraid to swim for fear of "flesh eating bacteria"... afraid to drink a diet soda for fear their brains will dissolve...and afraid to trust doctors who may/may not be "burned out, ethically bankrupt husks of their former selves in the thrall of megalithic drug companies".
In the midst of this paranoia, comes the suggestion that "government's going to MAKE me do this to my CHILD!"...because of any number of far-fetched reasons. It sounds nuts, but if one is living in their own head, constantly supplied the tripe coming from virtually every media source in existence...it's kinda easy to understand too.
It probably doesn't help if someone then suggests we're going to see the plague return... all because of "religion"; just sayin'.
Education is the key; that, and convincing folks to have discussions with professionals they do trust. Before we start saying, "pass a law"... let's get some positive facts out there, calm the panic, and get people back on bubble.
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I think it should be mandatory, but parents have a choice of when - we had our pediatrician spread out our kids shots over a couple of years. When we were kids, we got around 6 shots, kids today can be up to 20.
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People who don’t get vaccinated for COVID are a danger to themselves and everyone who is exposed to them. Typhoid Mary, anyone
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