At one point in our nation’s history, measles infected millions of Americans. Later, in the year 2000, the U.S. declared a milestone success in effectively eradicating the disease. In 2025, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the U.S. is seeing the most reported cases in decades. As of July 15, the Centers for Disease Control identified 1,309 confirmed cases in 39 states, including our very own New England neighbors, Rhode Island and Vermont. To put this in context, the CDC identified only 285 cases in 2024.
These worrying numbers — fueled in part by confusing signals from Washington, it would seem — reflect a disturbing unraveling of a public health success story and could reintroduce a highly preventable and highly communicable illness. There may not be an immediate cause for concern here in Marblehead, as The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts has high vaccination rates compared to the nation at large. But those rates are declining among kindergarteners, which create pockets of measles vulnerability often found in specific schools. So, while it is true that measles is not yet Marblehead’s problem, the “yet” is the key.
Fortunately for us, we live in a region that has access to a world-class and robust healthcare system. The Commonwealth Fund this year ranked Massachusetts first in the U.S. for its health system’s performance in terms of access to care, care quality and outcomes, among other factors. Similarly, we are fortunate to have informed and engaged public health officials and lawmakers promoting and enacting policies at both the state and local levels that positively impact public health and safety.
Yes, to be fair, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that the public health system operates in a complex, dynamic environment and that officials do not always get it right for everyone. Information evolved. Unprecedented challenges frequently arose. COVID-19 showed us that public health strategies can and should change to keep up with new data and learnings, always with an unwavering commitment to promoting the best possible health outcomes for all.
Measles is not COVID-19, however. The measles vaccine has been used and studied relentlessly since the 1960s, and the scientific and medical communities are unequivocal. As the CDC states, the vaccine provides 97% protection and is safe and effective. And, when a community achieves an estimated 95% vaccination rate, the entire community receives so-called herd immunity, which means the disease cannot easily spread.
Because measles is so contagious yet preventable, Massachusetts requires vaccination for admission to public school. There are two exemptions. One is medical (when an individual cannot medically receive the vaccine), and one is religious. To use the latter, a parent or guardian must only state in writing that a vaccination conflicts with their “sincere religious beliefs.”
It is time to revisit the religious exemption.
As the Current reported in 2023, it appears to be at the heart of declining vaccination numbers locally and across Massachusetts. Because of trending numbers, the exemption is one of the bigger obstacles to maintaining herd immunity and protecting our most medically vulnerable citizens — those who cannot take the vaccine for medical reasons and are thus most at risk for infection.
Two pending bills in the Massachusetts legislature (H.2554 and S.1557) seek to fix the problem. They would eliminate the religious exemption and introduce language to strengthen vaccine oversight by requiring annual reporting of school vaccination rates to enhance vaccine education and outreach.
If enacted, Massachusetts would join Connecticut, Maine and New York, among a few other states, in eliminating their religious exemptions. The bills are worthy of your review and support.
Now, no one should take burdening the exercise of religion lightly. The reality, though, is that very few religions actually prohibit vaccinations (even Christian Science, which focuses on spiritual power to heal sickness, does not ban vaccines). Consequently, many people may be misusing (innocently or not) the exemption to opt out of vaccinations because of general vaccine hesitancy.
When balancing the protection of religious practices with the protection of our community’s most vulnerable, we must prioritize protecting the vulnerable. Our courts have nearly uniformly recognized the appropriateness of this balance. States’ legislative efforts to pull back religious exemptions have been upheld as a constitutionally acceptable tool to guard against public health and safety risks.
The health of our community, especially our children and most medically vulnerable, is a shared responsibility. They deserve a future free from preventable diseases. That responsibility calls for aligning time-tested and evidence-based standards of care with public health policies for the common good.
Marblehead deserves nothing less. It is time to support our state legislature as it works to eliminate the religious exemption for school vaccinations.
