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Commentary
It's time to end religious exemptions for vaccinations in Mass.
As a churchgoer, I benefit from our constitutionally protected freedom of worship. The Framers, wary of the religious persecution that blighted colonial America, straitjacketed the national government from infringing on an individual’s spiritual life.
Yet what happens when dissembling cranks camouflage personal beliefs as religion? Especially when those beliefs deviate from what religion actually teaches? And when they risk the health of children?
As a condition of education, Massachusetts requires K-12 and postsecondary students, in public and private schools, to keep each other safe by being immunized against a range of diseases. Families may be exempted from this mandate, reasonably, for medical contraindications (say, for a child’s vaccine allergy, or compromised immune system). But they may also opt out for religious reasons, which isn’t at all reasonable, for reasons I’ll explain.
Enter Democratic state Rep. Andy Vargas, who represents Massachusetts' 3rd Essex district and sagely proposes scrapping religiously grounded exemptions to vaccinations. His legislation received a thumbs-up from the public health committee in the 2021-2022 legislative session and, he says, he’s “hopeful” of the full Legislature’s ultimate approval. (The bill needs another favorable committee vote this current session to be considered by the full Legislature.) Prudent minds, religious ones included, hope this is well-founded optimism. Faith-based exemptions are being misused by people who want to avoid complying with the law.
We know this, first, because anti-vaxxers, including our former president, Donald Trump, tend to talk publicly about their lawbreaking. Vargas has, in the words of scripture, been fighting this good fight on Beacon Hill for several years. “Many people have testified, stating that they use religious exemptions because of personal beliefs about vaccine safety,” he told me. “This is a violation of the law — we do not allow personal belief exemptions in Massachusetts. Many of the concerns we've heard are based on misinformation.” Massachusetts is not alone in this regard; a California pastor passed out religious exemption forms like Halloween candy to anyone who didn’t want the COVID-19 vaccine. (Unfortunately, 15 states do have personal belief exemptions.)
Professing religious scruples without professing a religion is what the ninth commandment refers to as “bearing false witness,” AKA lying. Especially as no major religion opposes vaccination. Not even the Christian Science Church, which generally relies on prayer for healing, does. Yet during the 2022-23 school year, Massachusetts logged 813 instances of families claiming that their faith forbids jabbing Junior.
Evidently, the Almighty has gotten increasingly grouchy about vaccination: The state granted 147 religious exemptions in 1987-88, 418 in 2003-04 and 747 in 2011-12. Of course, it’s not divine antipathy that soared over that time, but rather human conspiracy thinking, the kindling for pathologies from birtherism to insurrection and anti-vaccination.
Peddling ideas from the risible (Bill Gates is tracking you through vaccines) to the debunked (vaccines cause autism), conspiracists burlesqued as believers even before COVID, ranting against measles vaccination. Seemingly purged from the U.S. two decades earlier, the disease roared back in 2019 in communities with low vaccination against it. The ensuing outbreak (1,000-plus cases spanning 28 states) launched Vargas on his mission.
His bill would retain, rationally, medical opt-outs for students. But if enacted, it would add Massachusetts to the pathetically few (six) states that disallow religious exemptions. My native state of New Jersey pondered joining that group pre-pandemic, but caved before protests by types who now swoon over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign. One news video warned, “Viewer discretion advised” about the Jersey protest (“protest” being a charitable understatement. A legislative meeting plunged into chaos as an enraged crowd of anti-vaxxers screamed, “You are going to hell!” and other profound thoughts.)
Seemingly purged from the U.S. two decades earlier, [measles] roared back in 2019 in communities with low vaccination against it. The ensuing outbreak (1,000-plus cases spanning 28 states) launched Vargas on his mission.
And while health experts praised Vargas’s bill and a similar one at a legislative committee hearing, the usual suspects stand opposed. The Heritage Foundation took a break from shilling for climate change to throw snark: “In a state where life is not protected before 24 weeks and schools are promoting transgender ideology to children, Massachusetts lawmakers are now considering transferring vaccination power from parents to the government.”
Every state and the District of Columbia have long required school vaccination. Contrary to what the Heritage Foundation claims, the only power transfer contemplated would disarm parents who lie to evade the law. Heritage also quoted the Massachusetts Family Institute, which argues that “parents should not have to choose between honoring their sincerely held religious beliefs and access to in-school education for their children.”
But Vargas’s bill demands no such choice. Instead, it asks parents to choose between invoking God as cover for personal choices and access to public education for their children. Extremist libertarians implicitly argue that parental views, no matter how harmful, trump all. Sadly for them, the Supreme Court constitutionally settled the right of states to mandate vaccination almost 120 years ago (in a case involving Massachusetts, as it happens).
“Woke” back then meant the past tense of wake, not enthusiasm for government-mandated vaccination. Nevertheless, some today deem that mandate to be woke overreach. At a time when even some pet owners — incredibly — won’t vaccinate their dogs for rabies, Vargas is appealing to the better angels of our nature. We’ll find out if this blue-state bastion has a persuadable majority on this score.
