More and more New Jersey kids are going unvaccinated on religious grounds amid what experts call an unprecedented acceleration in measles spread throughout the United States. Over the last ten years the percentage of New Jersey children skipping vaccines through religious exemptions has more than doubled to 4.1%, according to state immunization reports.
Vaccine choice advocates argue that religious exemption is a key tenet of parent rights and medical freedom. But public health experts say decreasing vaccination coverage and increasing exemptions put the most vulnerable in our community at risk. In just the past two months, the CDC has been notified of 164 cases of measles in the U.S.— half the amount of cases the country saw in all of last year. The country also reported its first death in the past decade when a school-aged Texas child died last month from measles. To read the full story.