What Causes The Whooping Cough Epidemic To Spread: Inconsistent and Uncoherent Religious Beliefs or Illegal Immigrants?

      Right now there is a whooping cough epidemic spreading across our state of California and many other states in our nation. The many reason why this epidemic exists is that parents are choosing not to immunize their children which puts them and all the other children around them at a higher risk of contracting the disease. All of the whooping cough-related deaths in California occurred in babies too young to be fully immunized against the illness which makes it hard to rationalize parents not vaccinating there older children  to protect these youngsters. Many district courts have found, however, that parents have an option, interpreted from the constitution, to not immunize their children. But how can something which is causing deaths be constitutional?
   
      The first 16 words of the First Amendment give people the right to not vaccinate their kids thus putting most if not all of the children in their society at risk. It states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." This right has also been extended to include personal religious beliefs, which in our country could be almost anything. These beliefs, both institutional and personal, do not have to be consistent, coherent, or even understandable to other, as said by one of the lawyers who won the cases, James Filenbaum. This makes absolutely no sense to me, but as the courts found, it does not have to.

      Many of these people who believe that they should not have to vaccinate their children also believe that it is not their children that are causing this whooping cough epidemic in our country; they believe that it is the illegal immigrants in this country, and this claim is being supported by many people outside of their group. A concerned reader recently asked the Los Angeles Times what role illegal immigrants play in starting and spreading the epidemic. Although state officials are attempting to assure people that illegal immigrants play no significant part in this epidemic, many people continue to use illegal immigrants as their scapegoats. Just a fun fact: immunizations are among the highest in Hispanic children and are lowest in Caucasian children.  I am baffled by people's reasons for doing and believing what they do, because they are not rational at all and can potentially harm the weakest in our society, but I guess that is one of the risks of living in a country that encourages freedom in its people.