Here's a snippet from a paper written by Daniel A. Salmon, Phd, MPH of
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"Immunization laws permit certain exemptions. All states permit
medical exemptions for individuals who are immunocompromised,
have allergic reactions to vaccine constituents, have moderate or
severe illness, or other medical contraindications to vaccination.
To qualify for medical exemptions, parents or guardians must
provide a letter or other documentation from a physician. As of
10/17/032, forty-eight states permit religious exemptions (all but
Mississippi and West Virginia) and 19 states provide philosophical
or personal exemptions (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho,
Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North
Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah,
Vermont, Washingt on and Wisconsin).6 While debate often
centers around the type of exemption offered (religious vs.
philosophical), a recent study by Rota, et al7, found great variation
in the ways states implement non-medical exemptions. Among
states with religious but not philosophical exemptions (n=34), only
21 states indicate that requests for exemptions were ever denied.
The remaining states are, by defacto, allowing philosophical or
personal belief exemptions."
www.vaccinesafety.edu...
[edit on 5/14/2009 by soldiermom]