Refuse to Vaccinate? Little Religious Ground to Stand On

[cbayer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/nyregion/refuse-to-vaccinate-little-religious-ground-to-stand-on.html

FEB. 13, 2015


Assemblyman Thomas J. Abinanti of Westchester, a Democrat, is the chief advocate of a bill granting parents more access to vaccination exemptions. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

Earlier this month, a bill surfaced in the New York State Legislature proposing that parents be permitted to reject vaccinations for their children simply because they opposed them philosophically, as one might oppose Oreos or the Disney Channel. The bill had emerged before and gone nowhere; in the unlikely event that it was enacted, it would give parents even greater leeway to reject science for children who were ostensibly in school to gain an understanding of it.

On this occasion, the timing was especially bizarre, given the recent measles outbreak tied to Disneyland and the renewed fury it has brought to vaccine resistance. It was as if a plane had again crash-landed in the Hudson River and lawmakers seized the moment to spare airlines the expense of inflatable rafts.

This week in Albany, the bill’s Senate sponsor, Martin Dilan, who represents parts of Brooklyn including Williamsburg, must have awakened to its lunacy; he retracted his endorsement, leaving his fellow Democrat and the proposal’s chief advocate, Assemblyman Thomas J. Abinanti of Westchester County, on his own and in need of a new partner. Across the country, state legislatures — California’s, Vermont’s and Maine’s are among them — have been talking about strengthening their vaccine requirements, not diluting them, subtracting personal-belief exemptions, not facilitating them.

New York already allows parents to seek vaccine exemptions for medical or religious reasons. In effect, philosophical exemptions are superfluous because religious exemptions perform the same function. A state form requires that parents provide a written passage, in their own words, explaining why they are requesting the exemption, and the principles that guide the objection. A head of school can accept the submission or reject it, ask for supporting documents — a letter from a priest or a rabbi, for instance — or not. Anyone whose request is denied can appeal to the education commissioner.

more at link

[Historic NY]

1. Unfortunately NY Democrats are not immune to lunacy.....

they tend to double down on the stupid.

[cbayer]

2. The sponsor is from Westchester County.

You would think that would be a demographic that was educated enough to understand the seriousness of this issue.

[Historic NY]

3. Well the last opponent for Governor came from there...

enough said.

[edhopper]

4. I imagine

there might be some well off anti-vax new age types like in California.

Hopefully saner heads will prevail. Now if they can just broaden the Med-Marijuana law.

[cbayer]

5. Good point. They think they are smarter than the medical community

and all the epidemiologists at the CDC.

We would be further along with Med Mj if california hadn't botched it so badly.

[edhopper]

6. We have a Governor

who wanted to do the least possible.