Here are three states you almost never see in the same sentence — California, Mississippi, and West Virginia. Arguably the only thing these states have in common is they do not allow parents to opt out of vaccinating their kids on religious grounds to attend public or private school, and it’s probably time that Florida joined this group.
Literally every state allows parents to avoid vaccinating their child for medical reasons, but right now it would appear that a large portion of Florida parents are getting away with not vaccinating their kids for selfish and stupid reasons only known to them. Yesterday, the Tampa Bay Times released a harrowing but not at all shocking report stating that nearly 25,000 students in Florida schools are currently unvaccinated because of religious exemption, a number that has exploded by 375 percent since 2011.
If this number seems suspiciously high, it's because it is, especially when you consider the fact that no major religions prohibit vaccinations, which seems to imply that a large amount of Florida parents are clearly full of shit.
From the Times:
Of course, there’s no way to know the intention of every parent seeking the exemption. And although no major religion prohibits vaccinations, some smaller religious sects, such as the Church of Christ, Scientist, do.
But that almost certainly doesn’t explain a 25 percent year-over-year spike in exemptions granted, experts say.
Much more likely, said University of South Florida Health assistant professor Jill Roberts, parents are claiming the exemptions after being persuaded by sophisticated online anti-vaccination misinformation groups.
To make matters worse, Florida officials cannot even question the sincerity of a religious exemption because of a 1998 decision by the First District Court of Appeal, and there is currently zero legislation to address this issue.
So, for the millionth time, your child will not get autism from a vaccine. Study, upon study, upon study from verifiable and credible sources (even from scientists with zero ties to “big pharma”) have proven this over and over again. Even if vaccines did offer a slim chance that your kid would develop autism (which they don’t), the benefits of not getting polio, or any other mostly eradicated medieval disease, would certainly outweigh the incredibly small chance of any side effects.
But hey, misinformation is probably the only religion that these parents are worshiping.
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