Parents Fake Religion To Avoid Vaccines

Religious Or Not, Growing Numbers Say They Are To Get Out Of Vaccinating Their Kids

(AP)  Sabrina Rahim doesn't practice any particular faith, but she had no problem signing a letter declaring that because of her deeply held religious beliefs, her 4-year-old son should be exempt from the vaccinations required to enter preschool.

She is among a small but growing number of parents around the country who are claiming religious exemptions to avoid vaccinating their children when the real reason may be skepticism of the shots or concern they can cause other illnesses. Some of these parents say they are being forced to lie because of the way the vaccination laws are written in their states.

“It's misleading,” Rahim admitted, but she said she fears that earlier vaccinations may be to blame for her son's autism. “I find it very troubling, but for my son's safety, I feel this is the only option we have.”

An Associated Press examination of states' vaccination records and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that many states are seeing increases in the rate of religious exemptions claimed for kindergartners.

“Do I think that religious exemptions have become the default? Absolutely,” said Dr. Paul Offit, head of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and one of the harshest critics of the anti-vaccine movement. He said the resistance to vaccines is “an irrational, fear-based decision.”

The number of exemptions is extremely small in percentage terms and represents just a few thousand of the 3.7 million children entering kindergarten in 2005, the most recent figure available.

But public health officials say it takes only a few people to cause an outbreak that can put large numbers of lives at risk.

“When you choose not to get a vaccine, you're not just making a choice for yourself, you're making a choice for the person sitting next to you,” said Dr. Lance Rodewald, director of the CDC's Immunization Services Division.

All states have some requirement that youngsters be immunized against such childhood diseases as measles, mumps, chickenpox, diphtheria and whooping cough.

Twenty-eight states, including Florida, Massachusetts and New York, allow parents to opt out for medical or religious reasons only. Twenty other states, among them California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio, also allow parents to cite personal or philosophical reasons. Mississippi and West Virginia allow exemptions for medical reasons only.

From 2003 to 2007, religious exemptions for kindergartners increased, in some cases doubled or tripled, in 20 of the 28 states that allow only medical or religious exemptions, the AP found. Religious exemptions decreased in three of these states - Nebraska, Wyoming, South Carolina - and were unchanged in five others.

The rate of exemption requests is also increasing.

For example, in Massachusetts, the rate of those seeking exemptions has more than doubled in the past decade - from 0.24 percent, or 210, in 1996 to 0.60 percent, or 474, in 2006.

In Florida, 1,249 children claimed religious exemptions in 2006, almost double the 661 who did so just four years earlier. That was an increase of 0.3 to 0.6 percent of the student population. Georgia, New Hampshire and Alabama saw their rates double in the past four years.

The numbers from the various states cannot be added up with accuracy. Some states used a sampling of students to gauge levels of vaccinations. Others surveyed all or nearly all students.

Fifteen of the 20 states that allow both religious and philosophical exemptions have seen increases in both, according to the AP's findings.

While some parents - Christian Scientists and certain fundamentalists, for example - have genuine religious objections to medicine, it is clear that others are simply distrustful of shots.

Some parents say they are not convinced vaccinations help. Others fear the vaccinations themselves may make their children sick and even cause autism.

Even though government-funded studies have found no link between vaccines and autism, loosely organized groups of parents and even popular cultural figures such as radio host Don Imus have voiced concerns. Most of the furor on Internet message boards and Web sites has been about a mercury-based preservative once used in vaccines that some believe contributes to neurological disorders.

Unvaccinated children can spread diseases to others who have not gotten their shots or those for whom vaccinations provided less-than-complete protection.

In 1991, a religious group in Philadelphia that chose not to immunize its children touched off an outbreak of measles that claimed at least eight lives and sickened more than 700 people, mostly children.

And in 2005, an Indiana girl who had not been immunized picked up the measles virus at an orphanage in Romania and unknowingly brought it back to a church group. Within a month, the number of people infected had grown to 31 in what health officials said was the nation's worst outbreak of the disease in a decade.

Rachel Magni, a 35-year-old stay-at-home mother in Newton, Mass., said she is afraid vaccines could harm her children and “overwhelm their bodies.” Even though she attends a Protestant church that allows vaccinations, Magni pursued a religious exemption so her 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, who have never been vaccinated, could attend preschool.

“I felt that the risk of the vaccine was worse than the risk of the actual disease,” she said.

Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, one of the leading vaccine skeptic groups, said she discourages parents from pursuing religious exemptions unless they are genuine. Instead, Fisher said, parents should work to change the laws in their states.

“We counsel that if you do not live in a state that has a philosophical exemption, you still have to obey the law,” she said.

Even so, Fisher said, she empathizes with parents tempted to claim the religious exemption: “If a parent has a child who has had a deterioration after vaccination and the doctor says that's just a coincidence, you have to keep vaccinating this child, what is the parent left with?”

Offit said he knows of no state that enforces any penalty for parents who falsely claim a religious exemption.

“I think that wouldn't be worth it because that's just such an emotional issue for people. Our country was founded on the notion of religious freedom,” he said.

In 2002, four Arkansas families challenged the state's policy allowing religious exemptions only if a parent could prove membership in a recognized religion prohibiting vaccination. The court struck down the policy and the state began allowing both religious and philosophical exemptions.

Religious and medical exemptions, which had been climbing, plummeted, while the number of philosophical exemptions spiked.

In the first year alone, more parents applied for philosophical exemptions than religious and medical exemptions combined. From 2001 to 2004, the total number of students seeking exemptions in Arkansas more than doubled, from 529 to 1,145.

Dr. Janet Levitan, a pediatrician in Brookline, Mass., said she counsels patients who worry that vaccines could harm their children to pursue a religious exemption if that is their only option.

“I tell them if you don't want to vaccinate for philosophical reasons and the state doesn't allow that, then say it's for religious reasons,” she said. “It says you have to state that vaccination conflicts with your religious belief. It doesn't say you have to actually have that religious belief. So just state it.”

[zweedledee]

If you are scared that your children will get an illness from school then get them vaccinated. If your child is vaccinated then what have you got to be worried about? If you are worried that your children will get the illness despite the vaccine, then what was the purpose of the vaccine??
Don't you worry your pretty little heads about weather my children are vaccinated or not, because whether in school or in the grocery store, there is no way that someone is going to vaccinate my children after my daughter experienced a seizure at 9 months due to a vaccine. The seizure was wrote off as a freak occurrence by her pediatrician and was never reported.
If you think your children are susceptible at school, why wouldn't you also think that about the nursery at the gym or the church? Again, if your children have been vaccinated then why would you be concerned?

[michellem99-2009]

Step up to the plate and have them get their shots.Their the same peopple who will not get a flu shot. If their a shot that is not safe than yer don''t get it. Sick kids pass their sickness about.

[timkasemodel]

Dr. Paul Offit (a vaccine patent holder) said the resistance to vaccines is %u201Can irrational, fear-based decision.%u201D

I say that the push to over-vaccinate children is %u201Can irrational, fear-based decision.%u201D

Since the fact that mercury is in vaccines was exposed to the public in 1999, many parents have decided not to put blind trust in the CDC and people like Dr. Offit, who benefits from blind trust. They have become educated on the development of, study of and promotion of vaccines, and many have not liked what they learned. Their choice to not vaccinate their children is an educated one done not out of fear, but out of what they see as common sense.

Want to see a fear based decision? Go to a flu shot clinic.

[tucano2]

Merck''s MMR vaccine caused my child''s deafness. Poor overseas quality assurance and a total lack of corporate morality the primary factors, the secondary factor no teeth at all in law and no real problem for Merck to put out shoddy goods and simply pay off the few cases lost as if money would restore hearing. Shameful.

[brianbwb-2009]

Parents Fake Religion To Avoid Vaccines

They also fake religion to make money, they fake religion to have ***, they fake religion to avoid taxes, and they fake religion to make war.

So what else is new?

[godseyesore-2009]

What stupid people. Their children will pay.

[ozone-baby]

As a parent I too worry about all the vaccinations given to children. approx 20 before the age of 2, seems extreme. Non-the-less, as parents we also want to protect our children so it is a catch 22.
I swallowed my concerns and got my kids their shots and fortunately all is well, but still one has to wonder how their natural immune systems can build themselves if they are never given the chance.
Using religion as an excuse is ONLY ok if that is your TRUE belief.

[tcoleman12]

Just wait until HilaryCare hits...This lady will be tracked down by the NeedleNazis and the vaccinations will be administered, like it or not.
If you "want" the "mandated" healthcare "offered" by Hilary...you will take your medicine!

[batmanhatguy]

All these anti-religious posts... you''re all missing the point of the article. It also sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder. This is not logical discourse, it''s religion-bashing. It''s intolerant to the extreme.

I was shocked by the doctor''s instructions that parents should just lie to the government. "It just says you have to state it, not that you have to actually believe it.." If you claim to believe something you don''t, you''ve perjured yourself. It''s against basic ethics, and detracts from your personal honor and integrity.

[hwy71so]

"I find it interesting that the religionists typically cannot correctly spell even very common words. Could there be a connection between illiteracy and religious fervor?

Posted by MyIDonCBS at 09:09 AM : Oct 18, 2007"

You''re offended by something that''s positive in this life and all you can do is attack a person''s ability to properly spell a word? You poor thing. Carry on...

[hwy71so]

The fact that these kids are not being vaccinated provides a "breeding" ground for these viruses. Even with vaccination, they can STILL be contracted. The vaccines just minimize the chances. For a non-vaccinated person to expose himself to others increases the chances these others will contract a disease.

[myidoncbs]

I find it interesting that the religionists typically cannot correctly spell even very common words. Could there be a connection between illiteracy and religious fervor?

[hwy71so]

You know? I would be offended if I knew you knew what you were talking about. Perhaps. But, even if you think you know what you''re talking about, your assault is not against me, its against the Creator.

I hope you figure it out before its too late.

[rational_1]

dvillegas43 & sunseeker6: The only children these parents are endangering are their own. If your kids have been vaccinated, you need not worry about them contracting an infectious disease from exposure to an unvaccinated child. That is the whole point of vaccines.
Posted by eggy1620 at 08:51 AM : Oct 18, 2007

Okay, point taken. But suppose they don''t have adequate health insurance and society at large is forced to pay for their kids'' health care because of their stupidity. Theirs is a phenomenally selfish philosophy. They basically reason that because everyone else is going to vaccinate their kids (and take whatever risks might be associated with that) then they get the benefits of not having to worry about diseases as well as not having to worry about the possible risks of vaccination. If everyone took this approach it would lead to plagues like we used to have in the 14th century.

Just get your kid vaccinated - there''s no link between autism and vaccinations. Check out this review paper that summarizes findings in this area if you don''t believe me.

[eggy1620]

dvillegas43 & sunseeker6: The only children these parents are endangering are their own. If your kids have been vaccinated, you need not worry about them contracting an infectious disease from exposure to an unvaccinated child. That is the whole point of vaccines.

[Rusty_Fender]

relgion was created by a couple of lazy guys who figured out that if they claimed they spoke for "GOD" they could get food, chicks, whatever heaped on them if they''d just pretend to talk to the "god" to give the superstitious rabble better food, better crops, better weather. The con artists made a show of it and the rabble believed it - it started in the days of the cave man and continues today! Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell, Oral Roberts, etc are just carrying on the tradition of superstition.

ALL religion is a sham and people are deluded if they believe that some "god" is going to hand them whatever they want if they "pray" - talking to "beings" that don''t exist is a form of insanity.

It breeds hatred and distrust and preys on the poor and uneducated.

[dvillegas43-2009]

I have no problem with parents'' opting out of vaccinations for their children. But because of their actions and decisions, they are putting the general population at risk, not to mention their own kids. So I say if they choose to opt out they should have to pay more for health insurance and larger co-pays since their kids will be sick more often and longer than a child who has had vaccinations. We shouldn''t have to bear their costs because of their mind set. My two bits.

[hwy71so]

"Everyone FAKES religion. Religions are NOT real.

Posted by george2221 at 06:59 AM : Oct 18, 2007"

So, tell me George, what keeps you rising in the morning and participating in humanity? Why not just give up if there''s no hope for tomorrow?

You may spread your lies. That is your choice. But, as for me and my house, we will follow the Lord.

[sunseeker6]

All States should be for a valid medical reason only! I vaccinate my children, because I love them and want them to have a healthy life. I read the reports about the possible link to autism and vaccines. It was when the MMR was combined with other shots there was a risk. Guess what I did? I took my kids in for the MMR shot at a different time. Yeah, it required two trips to the Doctor, not one, but so what. I do NOT appreciate these parents putting my child at risk also. As CDC said, they also make a choice for the child next to theirs. They want to risk their childrens lifes thats fine but there will be Hell to pay if my children develops one of these dieases because some poor excuse of a parent didn''t vaccinate their child.

[hwy71so]

I attend church 3 times a week. I participate in the services and I trust in God''s grace to see me through my life.

I do not have a problem with my kids or myself receiving these vaccines. They''ve proven themselves. Anyway, what has the truly religious, faithful, have to worry about if they truly believe in the promise?

However, "for the one that believes it a sin and does it anyway, to him(her) it IS sin." (rough quote)

Its hard to believe one would lie to get out of doing something good for their kids...