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foxnews.com/us/states-seek-to-cut-off-religious-exemptions-for-vaccination
Connecticut's Attorney General gave state lawmakers the legal go-ahead Monday to pursue legislation that would prevent parents from exempting their children from vaccinations for religious reasons, a move that several states are considering amid a significant measles outbreak.
The non-binding ruling from William Tong, a Democrat, was released the same day public health officials in neighboring New York called on state legislators there to pass similar legislation . Most of the cases in the current outbreak have been in New York state.
[...] Connecticut is just one of several states considering whether to end longstanding laws that allow people to opt out of vaccinations for religious purposes. In the face of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, some have alleged religious exemptions have been abused by "anti-vaxxers" who believe vaccines are harmful despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
But the proposals to eliminate the opt-outs have also sparked emotional debates about religious freedom and the rights of parents.
Most religions have no prohibitions against vaccinations, according to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee. Yet the number of people seeking the religious exemption in Connecticut has been consistently climbing. There were 316 issued during the 2003-04 school year, compared to 1,255 in the 2017-18 school year.
[...] All 50 states have laws requiring students to have certain vaccinations. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, all but Mississippi, West Virginia and California grant religious exemptions. As of Jan. 30, the conference said 17 states allowed people to exempt their children for personal, moral or other philosophical beliefs.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 08 2019, @07:05PM (9 children)
Ok, I'll spell it out : what are the odds that an Amish person is on SoylentNews ?
(I'm ok with with your opinion, but pointing out the whoosh that started 4 posts upthread)
(Score: 4, Funny) by JNCF on Wednesday May 08 2019, @08:50PM (2 children)
I read and post via carrier pigeons and an English acquaintance, you insensitive clod!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday May 08 2019, @09:21PM (1 child)
I recommend training a woodpecker to send you replies in morse code straight onto the Buzzard's skull.
Higher bandwidth, cute factor, and less shit to deal with.
(Score: 3, Funny) by JNCF on Wednesday May 08 2019, @09:30PM
That's how I posted on The Old Site, but after years of woodpecker induced trepanation the quality of his posts degraded into what you see now and we decided to switch to the current method; my bandwidth is worse, but the overall comment quality between us has plateaued.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 09 2019, @12:24AM (5 children)
Our family had some Amish friends up in Illinois. They did the dresses without buttons, stores without electricity, baked awesome pies, etc. But, their community leader, most strict of the clan, came around and gave us a horse-drawn carriage ride... on a carriage with properly inflated pneumatic tires: English air, as they call it in the community. When you ask "how can he do that?" the community members just shrug their shoulders and reply "I don't know."
The 50 shades of orthodox Judaism practiced on Miami Beach are another great example of individuals charting their own course between traditional religious practices and modern life.
Who's to say that an agnostic, non-church-going family can't develop their own philosophical views surrounding modern medicine and practice that within their own family as a "religious practice"? Do they have to go and recruit a certain number of cult members to join them? How many? How many do you think they could organize nationwide through an online community that meets through internet chat rooms and message boards?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday May 09 2019, @12:53AM (1 child)
Vulcanized rubber tires are still a far cry from getting electricity, an ISP that serves people who usually refuse electricity, a working computer, and the desire to frequent such a wretched hive of scum and villainy as this place...
That's quite an amazing departure from what Amish typically is.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 09 2019, @01:54AM
Same guy used the telephone on the pole just outside his property line to call the fire department (who arrived on English air, of course) when his field was burning.
I could see a solar powered tablet and "municipal" wifi creeping into the odd Amish home here and there...
We had Mennonite cousins who came to visit in the 1970s - they didn't have TVs in their homes, but it sure didn't stop them from watching ours 12 hours a day while they were visiting us.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday May 09 2019, @02:53PM (2 children)
They can do that because, as you point out with the phone on-property and 911, the Amish are not "anti-technology". They also wear glasses and in many cases obtain modern medical care when required (all the members contributing to a community fund for such a purpose). The point being that the community establishes what the standards are for that community. If English tires were seen as a problem that member would be told to desist on pain of shunning, I would suspect.
So what prevents and individual family from deciding their own morals? In the case of vaccination I'd point out that the decision not to vaccinate affects not only that family, but the entire community. I'm not advocating for forced vaccination necessarily, but the question is what is the consequence to the family or their psyche for noncompliance? For "religious" exemptions there is a belief that genuine harm may result in an estrangement from God or being kicked out of heaven. What penalty does the freethinking family believe it will encounter by not complying with vaccines?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 09 2019, @03:17PM (1 child)
The primary fear driving anti-vax families is neurodevelopmental abnormalities potentially induced by elements of modern life that have, among other things, driven an increase in the rate of autism spectrum diagnoses from 1/10,000 to ~1/50 in the last 2 generations - with risk much higher than 1/50 clustered in vaguely identifiable groups.
Religious fear of God was driven by things that people didn't understand: earthquakes, plagues, hurricanes, venereal disease... I'd submit that modern science is doing about as good a job explaining Autism at the moment as it was explaining syphilis in ancient Egypt. For about 20 years now "science" has been shrilly defending vaccines as innocent in the Autism epidemic, but without a plausible and actionable explanation of what is causing the epidemic, I'm not surprised that a significant portion of the population rejects the current dogma.
We didn't reject all vaccines for our children, but we did reduce the schedule significantly. Things like polio and tetanus are definitely up to date, but the whole spectrum of 22 recommended? No thanks. Our family is clearly at significantly elevated risk for ASD, and as such we have taken other steps such as moving out of Houston to a less industrialized environment, and reducing exposure of our children to things like pesticides, etc.
Unfortunately, fad-thinking is a feature of human societies - including religions. So, for every family with legitimate concerns taking concrete actions, when a fad catches on there will be several others with less reason to make changes making similar and even more extreme changes.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday May 09 2019, @04:46PM
Interesting. I wouldn't describe science as shrill defending vaccines against autism claims. It was someone representing science as a physician who brought the question to the mainstream. The issue was studied quite intensively and it is on the basis of those studies over anecdotal evidence that science defends vaccination and that no link to autism can be found. If tomorrow more scientific evidence is brought forward it will also be examined in turn. But in the meantime people taken invalidated data and representing it as genuine might cause such a reaction.
But risks are always being studied, and guideline change is warranted as either risks change or better understanding is developed - for an idea of this history of CDC's [cdc.gov] various statements about vaccines. The key thing is that when changes occur either in the vaccines, the understanding of the disease as it effects vaccination, or both that information is published. Where the sharp end of medicine does fail is in representing the real risks of vaccination against the benefits of receiving the vaccines. The fear might be that calling attention to the risks may cause people to ignore the bit where the benefits outweigh those risks. But the real problem is that since science tends to work primarily by via negativa (proving that something isn't, rather than proving what is). Or perhaps more accurately it is easier to prove something is false rather than proving something true. Thus vaccination can be proven to not cause autism, while the underlying cause(s) are not yet proven. Causation usually comes about only after all other possibilities which can be conceived are ruled out, and even then there can be doubt that our understanding isn't perfect.
I think the disease count is now 26 different vaccinations available (although there certainly are ones like Rabies that aren't routine and Anthrax which is given only in certain circumstances). Adenovirus, Anthrax, Cholera, Diptheria, Hep A, Hep B, HIb, HPV, Influenza, Japanese Encephalitis, Measles, Meningococcal, Mumps, Pertussis, Pnemococcal, Polio, Rabies, Rotavirus, Rubella, Shingles, Smallpox, Tetanus, Tuberculosis, Typhoid, Varicella, Yellow Fever according to here [cdc.gov].
And yes, you illustrate very effectively why an absolute one-size-fits-all-no-exceptions policy isn't good, either. At the same time (and as you already know), they only work effectively if the point of herd immunity is reached, so society does have an interest in trying to ensure that refusals are kept down. No real answers, only observations.
This sig for rent.