We are facing immediate threats to our public health: a vaccine skeptic heading the Department of Health and Human Services amid outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease sweeping across our nation. More than 8,500 pertussis (whooping cough) cases with three pediatric deaths have occurred so far in 2025. Measles, a disease declared eliminated two decades ago has sickened more than 1,080 patients and caused three deaths so far this year.  The vast majority of the measles cases this year have happened to unimmunized people.

Massachusetts has had one of the highest vaccine rates in the country.  However, there is a growing threat to the public’s community immunity — the misuse of “religious exemptions” in schools across the Commonwealth.  Some people are allegedly claiming a religious exemption because personal belief exemptions are not allowed in Mass.; others are allegedly claiming a religious exemption because they were unable to get a valid medical exemption. These are leading to pockets of under-immunization around our state.

Two bills awaiting action on Beacon Hill, S.1557/H.2554, would remove the non-medical exemption from routine childhood vaccines in Massachusetts schools. The bills, sponsored by Senator Edward J. Kennedy and Representative Andres Vargas, will eliminate the religious exemption which will strengthen school vaccine reporting requirements — something that’s critical for our public health officials to track, to help identify communities at risk should there be a threat of an outbreak.  Public health is only effective with accurate data — it’s imperative that we arm our officials with the information they need to do their jobs effectively.

Religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements are not supported by the tenets of any major faith group. Vaccination is endorsed by top Jewish and Islamic scholars, the Vatican, and major Christian sects including Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Mormon, and Episcopalian. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Scientists do not prohibit vaccines.

These bills do not mandate immunization.  They simply fortify “community immunity” based on scientific research, and protect the most vulnerable in our communities, including those too young to be vaccinated, the very old who lose immunity as they age, and those with compromised immune systems.

Additionally, these bills will ensure a safe learning environment for all children, including those who, for medical reasons, cannot receive vaccines.  They will result in fewer missed school and parent work days, and will prevent Massachusetts from having to spend health care dollars fighting outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. We will never have statewide “community immunity” to diseases like measles as long as we have a religious loophole to opt out of vaccines.

Several states have already eliminated their religious exemption, including Connecticut and New York. It’s time for Massachusetts to do the same. I urge Massachusetts lawmakers to support S.1557/H.2554. Lives depend on it.

Richard Moriarty, MD, FAAP, is a member of the MA Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics and an advocate with MA Families for Vaccines.