I hope this passes in NJ

Published

No more opting out of vaccinations for religious reasons:

The Legislature may eliminate the religious exemption that allowed 14,000 students in the state to decline vaccines last year.

Some of the hundreds of parents who attended a Statehouse hearing on the bill on Thursday accused the state of violating their First Amendment right to religious freedom, vowing to pull their children out of school or relocate out of New Jersey.

The president of the New Jersey chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, meanwhile, argued that their “right to practice religion freely does not include ... exposing the community or a child to a communicable disease.”

The bill would allow children to seek an exemption only for medical reasons. The state Health Department would define which health conditions would qualify, and a physician, advance practice nurse or physician assistant must verify in writing the child had the disqualifying illness, according to the bill.

The bill gained momentum in January, after a measles outbreak dominated the news. There have been 19 confirmed cases of measles this year in New Jersey, and 1,276 nationwide.

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Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.

Did you hear about how a group of the opponents went to protest the bill at a transit meeting (like, public transportation committee) and when they were told they were in the wrong place, they refused to leave? If that doesn't tell you anything about their mental capacity for fact......

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
On 12/16/2019 at 11:01 AM, palli said:

Some of the hundreds of parents who attended a Statehouse hearing on the bill on Thursday accused the state of violating their First Amendment right to religious freedom, vowing to pull their children out of school or relocate out of New Jersey.

The president of the New Jersey chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, meanwhile, argued that their “right to practice religion freely does not include ... exposing the community or a child to a communicable disease.”

I wonder how many of those exemptors leaving would it take to give the representatives pause. I think relocating out of NJ's an empty threat; the prospect of homeschooling my own kids gave me hives.

Do you have a large number of any particular religious group up there?

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Specializes in School Nursing.
19 hours ago, ruby_jane said:

Do you have a large number of any particular religious group up there?

The Church of Universal Wisdom is based out of Medford NJ. You can pay them for a fancy letter. No chapel/meetings.

If you deep dive on it, it was made by a couple chiropractors, only one of them is now alive per a news article

Here is their website that still looks like it was made in the 90s:
https://www.cuwisdom.org/index.php

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Specializes in Community health.

“Religious exemptions” drive me bananas because there are no religions that oppose vaccines! (I guess I shouldn’t say that unequivocally; maybe there are some tiny religious groups somewhere that do. But none with any significant population in my huge metro area.) I have a couple coworkers who avoided mandatory vaccines for “religious reasons.” It’s not like they make flu vaccine from... pork. Or fetuses. Refusing a vaccine because you, personally, are afraid of vaccines is not a religious matter!

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Philadelphia Inquirer

by Rita Giordano, Updated: December 17, 2019

N.J. measure to end religious exemption from childhood vaccines stalls in state Senate

https://www.inquirer.com/health/vaccines-religious-exemption-measles-new-jersey-senate-assembly-20191217.html

Quote

An effort to end exemptions from childhood vaccinations on the basis of religious beliefs in New Jersey won approval in the state Assembly on Monday, only to be halted that night in the Senate after vigorous protests.

The Assembly passed the controversial change by a 45-25 vote with six abstentions.

But later Monday, Senate cosponsor Joseph Vitale (D., Middlesex) said he was one vote short of passing the bill, and Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) ended the session without bringing up the measure, reported NJ.com. ...

,,,New Jersey’s legislative action comes at a time when more people are questioning the need for and safety of vaccinating children, even though all gold-standard medical evidence indicates that vaccines are safe interventions that have stopped diseases that once killed thousands of American children each year. A study by the New Jersey Hospital Association released earlier this year found New Jersey families claiming religious exemptions for their children rose 53% in the last five years...

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Specializes in OB.
On 12/17/2019 at 3:08 PM, ruby_jane said:

I wonder how many of those exemptors leaving would it take to give the representatives pause. I think relocating out of NJ's an empty threat; the prospect of homeschooling my own kids gave me hives.

Do you have a large number of any particular religious group up there?

I used to live in NJ and am myself somewhat "crunchy" but staunchly pro-vax. In my experience, the anti-vaxxers were an odd melange of religious right-wing evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jewish folks, with a few stereotypical regular hippies mixed in.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
17 hours ago, CommunityRNBSN said:

“Religious exemptions” drive me bananas because there are no religions that oppose vaccines! (I guess I shouldn’t say that unequivocally; maybe there are some tiny religious groups somewhere that do. But none with any significant population in my huge metro area.) I have a couple coworkers who avoided mandatory vaccines for “religious reasons.” It’s not like they make flu vaccine from... pork. Or fetuses. Refusing a vaccine because you, personally, are afraid of vaccines is not a religious matter!

There actually are (or maybe were) some vaccines that contained pork - Porcine gelatine. From what I remember off the top of my head though, many Muslim and Jewish leaders stated that although pork gelatin is derived from pork, it is processed and 'changed" enough to make it pure and okay for their community.

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