Mississippi’s format for allowing parents of school-aged children to claim a religious exemption for public school vaccine requirements began this past weekend. Given that the state cannot question the truthfulness of the parents’ religious beliefs, the only question to be answered is how many unvaccinated children will attend schools this fall.
Hopefully, the number of non-immunized children will be a small percentage of the student body. Mississippi has an abundance of health problems, but one thing the state has done right is insist that children attending public schools keep their vaccinations up to date.
The interim state epidemiologist noted on the Magnolia Tribune website that Mississippi, because of its strong immunization program, has not recorded a case of the measles since 1992, even though a number of other states have reported them.
There’s something to be said for protection against deadly diseases, but it tends to be ignored in the debate over mandatory vaccines.
Until an April ruling by a federal judge, who said the failure to provide a religious exemption to the vaccine requirement was unconstitutional, Mississippi had public school children immunized for nine diseases: polio, hepatitis, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. (The covid-19 shot is not on this list, and an exemption was in place for kids with weakened immune systems.)
Those nine infections caused serious health problems until medical science figured out how to rein them in. The success of these programs, in fact, may have led in part to today’s skepticism of vaccines, because so many people have forgotten how dangerous the infections can be.
Perhaps unintentionally, the Mississippi Department of Health is making it difficult for families to apply for a religious vaccine exemption. Parents must schedule an appointment at a county health department office — where budget cuts have reduced staff and hours. They must fill out a form and watch a video on vaccine education. Ultimately, the state epidemiologist reviews the application.
