Some Vermonters may get religion as vaccine outs narrow
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Parents in America’s least devout state may be forced to find religion if they want to exempt their kids from getting vaccinated.
Vermont earlier this year became the first state to remove a philosophical exemption allowing parents to skip the immunizations required to enroll in school but keep the religious exemption in place.
And while some states require evidence — a statement of religious beliefs, for instance — to support the claim that a child should be exempt for religious reasons, Vermont requires only checking a box on a form next to the word “religious.”
“The vast majority who used the philosophical exemption are planning to or are being forced to use the religious exemption,” said Jennifer Stella, president of the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice.
Vermont, which historically has had one of the country’s lowest rates of students fully compliant with the recommended vaccination schedule, is the first state to preserve the religious exemption while doing away with the philosophical one, according to research complied by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Vaccine Information Center. Earlier this summer, California joined West Virginia and Mississippi as the only states without any personal belief exemption.
Because Vermont is first down this particular path, there’s no answer to the question of whether states see a new-found interest in religion upon removing the philosophical exemption. But Shawn Venner and Aedan Scribner, who are raising their 8-month-old daughter, Zelda, in Cabot, said the issue may spark a revival.
“I grew up here in Cabot, and would love my daughter to be able to go to the same school I did,” said Scribner. “But to get her into that school I’m going to have to do something like convert religiously.”
The couple said they are not opposed to all vaccines for their daughter, but strongly support choice in the matter.
There’s been talk among friends of starting a new religion, Venner said, “a religion that says we’ll pretty much have a choice.”
As it stands now, Vermont is something other than a hotbed of religious fervor. A study released in May by the Pew Research Center found 37 percent of Vermonters described themselves as “unaffiliated” with any religion — the highest in the country. Time magazine reported last year on poll results from the Gallup organization in which 22 percent of Vermonters — the lowest in the country — described themselves as “very religious.”
Four percent of Vermont’s school children in kindergarten through 12th grade advantage of the philosophical exemption last year, according to state figures. Only 0.2 percent used the religious exemption, less than the 0.3 percent who qualified for a medical exemption.
Christine Finley, immunization program manager for the state Health Department, told The Associated Press the department will launch a public education campaign this winter to ensure parents are aware the philosophical exemption will disappear effective July 1, giving families time to schedule the needed doctors’ appointments for children to get caught up on their shots.
Schools and child care centers around Vermont — both public and private, or “independent,” as they are called in state law — “will be sending out notices to families that this is coming,” Finley said. “This is the new law, and this is what we need to be doing.”
Finley said the Health Department will release data in May that is likely to present the first clear picture of how many families are shifting from the philosophical exemption to a religious one.
“I think we’ll know a lot more next year and that will give us a sort of baseline understanding going forward,” said Jill Remick, a spokeswoman for the state Agency of Education.
School nurses are on the front lines of Vermont’s efforts to get nearly all kids fully immunized. Several said they expect some families that do not want their children fully vaccinated may simply switch to the religious exemption.
Such a switch would seem suspicious because of the timing, said Claire Molner, nurse at the Proctor Junior/Senior High School. Some families object not to all, but to one or some vaccines, she noted.
But Molner said nurses with whom she’s spoken don’t want to be placed in a position in which they are asked to judge the sincerity of someone’s religious belief.
“I don’t think I can sit there and be the arbiter of somebody’s faith,” Molner said.
Vermont earlier this year became the first state to remove a philosophical exemption allowing parents to skip the immunizations required to enroll in school but keep the religious exemption in place.
And while some states require evidence — a statement of religious beliefs, for instance — to support the claim that a child should be exempt for religious reasons, Vermont requires only checking a box on a form next to the word “religious.”
“The vast majority who used the philosophical exemption are planning to or are being forced to use the religious exemption,” said Jennifer Stella, president of the Vermont Coalition for Vaccine Choice.
Because Vermont is first down this particular path, there’s no answer to the question of whether states see a new-found interest in religion upon removing the philosophical exemption. But Shawn Venner and Aedan Scribner, who are raising their 8-month-old daughter, Zelda, in Cabot, said the issue may spark a revival.
“I grew up here in Cabot, and would love my daughter to be able to go to the same school I did,” said Scribner. “But to get her into that school I’m going to have to do something like convert religiously.”
The couple said they are not opposed to all vaccines for their daughter, but strongly support choice in the matter.
There’s been talk among friends of starting a new religion, Venner said, “a religion that says we’ll pretty much have a choice.”
As it stands now, Vermont is something other than a hotbed of religious fervor. A study released in May by the Pew Research Center found 37 percent of Vermonters described themselves as “unaffiliated” with any religion — the highest in the country. Time magazine reported last year on poll results from the Gallup organization in which 22 percent of Vermonters — the lowest in the country — described themselves as “very religious.”
Four percent of Vermont’s school children in kindergarten through 12th grade advantage of the philosophical exemption last year, according to state figures. Only 0.2 percent used the religious exemption, less than the 0.3 percent who qualified for a medical exemption.
Christine Finley, immunization program manager for the state Health Department, told The Associated Press the department will launch a public education campaign this winter to ensure parents are aware the philosophical exemption will disappear effective July 1, giving families time to schedule the needed doctors’ appointments for children to get caught up on their shots.
Schools and child care centers around Vermont — both public and private, or “independent,” as they are called in state law — “will be sending out notices to families that this is coming,” Finley said. “This is the new law, and this is what we need to be doing.”
Finley said the Health Department will release data in May that is likely to present the first clear picture of how many families are shifting from the philosophical exemption to a religious one.
“I think we’ll know a lot more next year and that will give us a sort of baseline understanding going forward,” said Jill Remick, a spokeswoman for the state Agency of Education.
School nurses are on the front lines of Vermont’s efforts to get nearly all kids fully immunized. Several said they expect some families that do not want their children fully vaccinated may simply switch to the religious exemption.
Such a switch would seem suspicious because of the timing, said Claire Molner, nurse at the Proctor Junior/Senior High School. Some families object not to all, but to one or some vaccines, she noted.
But Molner said nurses with whom she’s spoken don’t want to be placed in a position in which they are asked to judge the sincerity of someone’s religious belief.
“I don’t think I can sit there and be the arbiter of somebody’s faith,” Molner said.
http://wtop.com/health/2015/09/some-vermonters-may-get-religion-as-vaccine-outs-narrow/
Who funds the trillion dollar plan of the U.N.'s new global goals?
UNITED NATIONS (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As world leaders brandish a hard-fought new set of global goals designed to improve lives in all countries, the question of who foots the trillion-dollar bill remained open on Saturday as financial pledges started rolling in.
The United Nation's 193 member countries on Friday adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a roadmap to end poverty and hunger, fight inequality and conquer climate change over the next 15 years, or 800 weeks.
The goals tackling issues in both rich and poor countries replace an earlier U.N. action plan, the Millennium Development Goals, which focused mainly on poverty in developing nations.
While aid funds and debt relief were key for the millennium goals, there is wide recognition of the need for other sources for the estimated $3 trillion a year needed to enact the SDGs.
The World Bank, with other development banks, coined the phrase "Billions to Trillions" to illustrate the challenge.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Angel Gurria said private sector participation was critical while governments need to strengthen tax and regulatory systems to encourage investment.
"Without the private sector, it is not going to happen, as we have budgetary constraints in every country," Gurria told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.
"You'll have a lot of pledges but you'll need a framework to allow the flows (of finance) to then happen naturally."
A July conference in Addis Ababa addressing SDG funding issues made clear that private sector as well as philanthropic foundations had a major role to play, with private enterprise the main source of economic growth and job creation, outsizing donor nation funds.
Meanwhile the world's richest nations again committed to a target of earmarking 0.7 percent of gross national income for overseas development assistance - although few meet that level in practice - which now stands at about $135 billion a year.
Pledges of funding started to roll in during the U.N. three-day SDG summit that ends on Sunday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced more than $25 billion in initial commitments over five years from 40 countries and more than 100 international organizations to help end preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents.
Contributions to boost funding for gender equality powerment included $5 million from Chinese e-commerce giant the Alibaba Group and $1 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled an initial pledge of $2 billion with aims to increase that to $12 billion by 2030.
Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, said the agenda would not be achieved without business - and that meant ensuring stability and good governance in countries to support big partnerships.
"Business is attracted to where there is a solid and able environment and basic rule of law, commercial law, dispute resolution, peaceful and inclusive societies," said Clark, the former New Zealand prime minister.
"For us, it's fundamentally not about financial contributions that business makes to U.N. agencies. It's about shared values ... the way business does business. Is it inclusive, and is it sustainable?"
Centerpiece to funding talks has been a focus on helping countries boost their domestic resources by improving tax collection and attacking tax evasion and illicit cash flows.
While some criticize this as tinkering with a broken global tax system, Gurria said SDG funding does not need new initiatives but can build on and improve existing structures.
He called for a team of "tax inspectors without borders" to build trust in countries' systems and boost investment.
"If you get it right, you can get trillions," Gurria said.
But it is agreed that funding alone was not enough to achieve the global goals, with policy changes needed to support the priorities.
Michael Green, executive director of the Social Progress Imperative which analyzes countries' progress on social measures, said economic growth alone would not meet the SDGs, which deal with subjects ranging from energy subsidies to developing genebanks.
"The SDGs are about political will and inclusion," Green told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "We have the resources if we use them properly for this is not just about money."
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/funds-trillion-dollar-plan-u-n-global-goals-214614946--sector.html
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