Here I am again, appealing to you to contact the Massachusetts legislature to advocate for sane public health policy in the face of religious fanaticism.
The Community Immunity Act (S.1458 and H.2151) standardizes immunization protocols for schools and other youth programs and supports local interventions in communities lacking herd immunity against dangerous (and even deadly) yet preventable diseases. Among other things, it amends Chapter 76, Section 15 of the General Laws, which previously provided the following religious exemption for vaccinations:
In the absence of an emergency or epidemic of disease declared by the department of public health, no child whose parent or guardian states in writing that vaccination or immunization conflicts with his sincere religious beliefs shall be required to present said physician's certificate in order to be admitted to school.
The Routine Childhood Immunizations Act (S.1391 and H.604) facilitates robust data collection to assess gaps in statewide vaccine delivery. Here is the full text of the Act:
All schools, whether public, private, or charter, that provide education to children in any combination of grade levels from kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, shall annually report to the department total numbers of children who are successfully immunized in accordance with section 15 of chapter 76 and who are exempted from immunization requirements. The department shall designate the methodology for reporting.
The department shall annually publish and make publicly available aggregate immunizations and exemptions data for each school and school district, provided, that publishing and making publicly available such data shall not be required if it would result in disclosure of personal information as defined in section 1 of chapter 93H or otherwise violate applicable privacy laws. The department may also publish data by municipality, county, or other geographic designation, or otherwise in its discretion.
Predictably, the Massachusetts Family Institute, a Christian Nationalist organization, is calling on their supporters to oppose this legislation, and to defend their "sincere religious" right to expose their unvaccinated children to yours.
On July 19th some of the MFI's supporters appeared in hearings before the Joint Committee on Public Health in the legislature to make their emotional religious appeals. Unfortunately, some in the Legislature will be swayed.
But at a time when COVID, measles, and polio epidemics have occurred (largely within insular religious communities like the Amish and Haredi) and even smallpox is making a comeback, public safety and public health concerns must override the "sincere religious beliefs" of people who believe that God will cure them if they believe hard enough. Their preferred "treatment" is obviously of no use to you if you don't share these beliefs. More to the point, religion is no replacement for public health policy.
Claiming a religious objection seems more a legal strategy (invoking the 1st Amendment) than anything actually found in scripture. Neither Moses nor Jesus ever said anything about vaccines and no commandment prohibits their use. True Believers are comfortable ignoring explicit Biblical prohibitions, such as wearing mixed fabrics (Leviticus 19:19), or positive exhortations, such as stoning adulterers (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). Claiming a religious exemption is pretty convenient picking-and-choosing when you simply don't want to do the socially responsible thing and vaccinate your kids.
But it turns out that "personal freedom" rather than "sincere religious belief" was the original objection to vaccines.
Although Thucydides (430 BC) knew about the immunizing effects of prior infection and Rhazes (910 AD) knew about variolation, it wasn't until the 18th Century that Edward Jenner developed the first smallpox vaccine. In short order, anti-vaxx societies sprang up in Britain, primarily because people didn't like being told what to do by the government, but also because variolation seemed dangerous and counterintuitive. George Bernard Shaw, who was better with words than with science, described vaccination as "rubbing the contents of the dustpan into the wound." The British Anti-Vaccination League existed until 1972, when its last journal was published. Anti-vaxxers have a long history.
We will always have those who think their 3am partying is more important than your sleep, those who think their right to have their dog fertilize your lawn supersedes your right to enjoy your own property, and those who think their crackpot medical theories masquerading as "sincere religious belief" are more important than your health or your life.
Please tell the Legislature that they're wrong.