The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement this week that called for the “elimination of nonmedical exemptions” from immunizations, and claimed, specifically, that religious and other nonmedical exemptions only result in making schools “less safe.”
“Routine childhood immunizations against infectious diseases are an integral part of our public health infrastructure,” wrote Jesse Hackell, M.D., FAAP, et al for the AAP policy statement. “They provide direct protection to the immunized individual and indirect protection to children and adults unable to be immunized by reducing spread of vaccine-preventable diseases in the community.”
“The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports certification of immunization to attend child care and school as a sound means of providing a safe environment for attendees and employees of these settings,” the statement continued. “The AAP also supports medically indicated exemptions to specific immunizations as determined for each individual child. The AAP advocates for the elimination of nonmedical exemptions from immunizations as contrary to optimal individual and public health.”
In a section of the statement that pertained specifically to “exemptions based on religious beliefs,” AAP first declared that no major religious groups “include scriptural or doctrinal guidelines that preclude adherents from being vaccinated.”
Citing a 2022 NPR news story focused on Pope Francis’ assertion that “health care is a moral obligation,” AAP argued that, “[i]n fact, the leaders of some religious groups have highlighted that vaccination can be one important way to protect oneself and one’s neighbors and have thus suggested that there is a moral or religious obligation to seek vaccination.”
The establishment pediatrics group then provided its own explanation of how religious exemptions could have developed, minimizing such thinking as having come from “small communities or individuals in ways that are completely independent from antecedent scriptural or doctrinal traditions.”
Deciding that the issue of religion leaves us with enormous “complexity,” AAP reasoned that “it can be extraordinarily difficult to interpret what is meant when a perspective on vaccination is asserted to have a religious dimension.”
“State legislatures are rightly reticent to enact public policies that are perceived to interfere with the exercise of religion,” the policy statement added. “However, in practice, nonmedical exceptions based on religious belief can substantially limit the public health value of vaccine requirements for school attendance.”
In conclusion, AAP asserted that “[t]here is no practicable way for schools or other involved community partners to distinguish fairly among religious or other nonmedical claims.”
“State-level policies that differentiate among these types of claims serve only to introduce opportunities for uneven application, which in turn leads inevitably to disparities in immunization coverage and schools that are less safe,” the group stated.
In comments to MedPage Today, lead author Hackell said AAP recommends “that vaccination is required for participation in certain public activities, such as school and daycare, and if you choose not to vaccinate, you’re essentially choosing to exclude yourself from those settings.”
“Vaccines are effective, they’re safe, and they save lives,” he said, “and we have to make sure that we reach every community and help them understand that.”
AAP’s website touts corporate donors to its Friends of Children Fund. They include numerous pharmaceutical giants, among them these companies who donate at the level of the “President’s Circle” ($50,000 and above): Merck, Moderna, Sanofi, and CSL Seqirus.
Contributing to AAP at the “Patron’s Level” ($25,000 to $49,999) are Eli Lilly and Company, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sobi.
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Author: Susan Berry, Ph.D.
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