STAR-ADVERTISER / 2022
A booster shot is administered during Hawaii Pacific Health’s mobile COVID-19 vaccination event at Hahaione Elementary School in 2022.
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A reader writes that vaccinations fall under religious exemptions (“Religious exemptions are a constitutional right,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 19). Wrong. The U.S. Constitution provides no religious exemption from vaccinations.
In its 1944 Prince v. Massachusetts decision, the Supreme Court said, “The right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death.”
Vaccine requirements for measles and other diseases are based on sound public health policies. Exemptions are based on political practice, not the Constitution.
While everyone may be entitled to their own opinions, this newspaper should try to avoid broadcasting dangerous misinformation. Readers should be encouraged to study the Constitution and to recognize antivaccine propaganda for what it is: misinformation that can lead to vaccine hesitancy, reduced immunization rates and the resurgence of preventable diseases.
John Keiser
Makiki
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