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Defending public health or violating religious freedom? New York lawmakers late yesterday passed a law ending the religious exemption for vaccination, leaving only an exemption for medical necessity. Andrew Cuomo was quick to sign the bill, which came into effect immediately – but not without protesting angrily against the non-respect of religious rights:
"We are facing an unprecedented public health crisis," said Senator Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan and sponsor of the Senate bill. "The atrocious hawkers of the science of junk food and fraudulent medicine that we know as anti-vaxxers have spent years sowing unjustified doubt and fear, but it is time for lawmakers to confront them head-on."
Hundreds of parents of unvaccinated children gathered at the New York Capitol before the vote to protest what many called an infringement of freedom of religion.
"People have come to this country to get away from this stuff," said Stan Yung, a Long Island lawyer with three children.
Yung, who is Russian Orthodox, said he had religious views and health issues that would prevent him from vaccinating his three young children. His family, he said, might consider leaving the state if the bill is signed.
It was not a slam dunk in the state legislature. The bill was passed by only ten votes in the state Senate, 36-26, and the gap was not much greater in the assembly, 77-53. The controversy over freedom of religion has proven to be a bigger hurdle than some would have thought, especially in the deep blue of New York. Expect more political reactions as the law comes into force over the next 30 days, as parents will face new requirements for submitting vaccination records.
Part of the problem is that the religious exemption had no real control. Many people used it to legitimize a religious doctrine, but as one person notes in the PIX 11 report, many others use it as a means of personally opposing vaccines independently. religious questions. The combination of the two has left many children without immunity and likely to be exposed through travel or immigration, an illness that the CDC has declared to be eliminated in the United States. United less than twenty years ago.
No matter what Yung says, people do not come to the United States simply to escape the required vaccines. Schools have been demanding immunizations for more than a century, the Supreme Court having approved this claim in a case dating back to 1905. Many people have emigrated to the United States since then and almost all are vaccinated at some point . In fact, one could argue that the generally excellent health of the American population could attract more people than some largely mythic abilities to avoid vaccinations.
Maybe if we could develop a solid test for religious exemptions that locks anti-vaxx manipulations of such loopholes, then the state might perhaps make it work. The measles epidemics in New York and other states show quite clearly that these policies pose a danger to public health, especially when exploitation of this loophole becomes a passion. Parents are required to send their children to schools, usually public schools, where unvaccinated children could put their own children at risk, which means that schools have a responsibility to minimize this danger as much as possible. Vaccines have proven effective and reliable to mitigate – and until recently, to eliminate this danger.
The free expression of religious doctrine should be a top priority in American life and is too often encroached upon by the nanny state. That's why we passed the Federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and many states, and imposed strict controls on laws and regulations that go beyond this limit. In this case, however, serious illnesses threaten public health when participation in education is needed to make children vulnerable, which is a clear interest to the state, who would easily survive a strict examination . New York has made the right decision in this matter.
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