Among the many things that Mississippi gets wrong, all those things which make it 50th or close to dead last among all other states in health measures, including having the shortest expected life span and refusing Medicaid expansion, Mississippi has for decades done one thing right. That right thing, beginning as far back as1900, is to require mandatory vaccinations, or immunizations, against infectious childhood illnesses for school children. Presently this requirement applies to both public and private schools, with home schools being exempt. Today Mississippi has one of the most successful childhood vaccination programs in the United States and thus has one of the lowest rates of infectious childhood diseases. This is high praise for the dedicated efforts of public health officials in the Department of Health, along with reinforcement by the legal community for upholding the mandatory vaccines.
This success has now been thrown to the wind. District Judge Halil Suleman “Sul” Ozerden, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of MS. has now ruled that science doesn’t matter when it comes to requiring vaccinations for school children. What matters is that “prayer and conversations with the Lord” by some Mississippi parents have told these parents that vaccinations are against God’s will and against God’s natural design for human bodies. Thus, Judge Ozerden imposed an injunction (likely to become law) that Mississippi must allow religious belief exemptions for school vaccinations. While factual immunological science in all states allows parents to secure medical exemptions for having children vaccinated, only some states to date have continued to deny religious exemptions. Mississippi was one that continued to deny religious belief exemptions. In fact, in a 1979 MS Supreme Court case (Brown vs. Stone), justices decided that providing a religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations, based on religious beliefs, was actually unconstitutional, as it imposed on the constitutional rights of others!
Now Judge Ozerden, a member of the Federalist Society, and hand picked (but fortunately wisely rejected) Trump nominee for a Fifth Circuit position, has decided to usurp the legal wisdom of the MS Supreme Court. Not only that, but he has decided to usurp the medical wisdom of leaders in public health in Mississippi as well. Dr. Thomas Dobbs, former State Health Officer, who is speculated to have resigned in 2022 because of struggles with state leaders, particularly Gov. Reeves, over taking scientific approaches to COVID-19 measures, held the view that Mississippi “should not have (vaccine) exemptions that aren’t based on science.” The anti-vaxers deny that they are such though, claiming what they are really about is their right to “choice.” One wonders if these anti-vaxers, however, are some of the same persons who want to deny “choice” to women over their reproductive rights!
What the “God told me” anti-vaxers don’t understand, while using the smoke screen of choice to get their religious beliefs inflicted on others, is that parents of immunocompromised children, who for medical reasons can’t get vaccinated, along with elderly adults, babies, and in general all school children and teachers, and communities, also have a choice and right. As the MS Supreme Court explained, that constitutionally upheld choice is to not be exposed to the hazards which unvaccinated school children bring into schools, into homes, into churches, into public arenas, and into communities as well. Presently, for example, pertussis (whooping cough), has seen a sharp increase in cases, especially in adults, and out of babies who get it, 1 out of 100 will die. This is due to vaccine coverage being incomplete or vaccinations being refused. Time magazine reported that in January 2023, an outbreak of measles in Ohio in more than 80 under-vaccinated children resulted in nearly 40% being hospitalized.
Which religions oppose vaccinations? Not many! Essentially none of the mainstream U.S. religions oppose childhood vaccinations, and Jehovah’s Witnesses agree. One religious group has expressed that vaccines are a “gift from God.” Another has said that vaccinating children is a “gift of Love.” Another has said that parents have a “responsibility” to protect their children against infections. Yet, based on their “conversations with God” some parents in MS claim that God tells them that vaccines kill, vaccines harm, vaccines are not “natural” and a right wing judge decided to agree. The reality is that measles sickens and even kills, polio maims for life, and whooping cough kills babies exposed to carriers who are unvaccinated. The reality is that measles isn’t just measles, and God gets you over it. New research (2019) has shown that childhood measles impairs a child’s immune system to all other infections, for a lifetime! Dr. Sandy Feldman, UMMC Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and former Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases has firmly stated,"Vaccines save lives. They don't take lives."
— Beverly E. Johnson of Kosciusko
