Oct 6, 2026 · 6 min · 6 segments
CHOP's esteemed immunologist, Paul Offit, steps into the debate over vaccines and religious freedom, and concludes that being anti-vax is not pro-religion
About 1,400 children were infected, hundreds were hospitalized, and nine died.
The outbreak centered on two large fundamentalist churches in the city, Faith Tabernacle and First Century Gospel, which chose not to vaccinate their children for religious reasons.
Among church members, about 500 people were infected and six of them died.
Among non-church members in the surrounding community, about 900 were infected and three died.
Parents in those two religious communities had chosen to put their children and the community's children at risk, neither of whom had any say in the matter.
As an attending physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia during this outbreak, I was angry that these two churches had put children in harm's way, angry that so much suffering and death had occurred in the name of religion.
The experience inspired my book, Bad Faith, When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine.
I intended the book to be a polemic against any religion that enabled this level of unnecessary suffering.
But after speaking with the chaplain at our hospital, I changed my mind.
She too was angry, but for a different reason.
This isn't religion, she said.
These people aren't representing the teachings of Jesus who care deeply about children.
She pointed to a passage in Matthew that read, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.
Putting children at risk was the opposite of his teachings.
She changed my mind, so my book evolved from an anti-religion book to a this is not religion book.
The epigraph reads, To all those who perform good deeds in the name of their faith.
About 1,400 children were infected, hundreds were hospitalized, and nine died.
The outbreak centered on two large fundamentalist churches in the city, Faith Tabernacle and First Century Gospel, which chose not to vaccinate their children for religious reasons.
Among church members, about 500 people were infected and six of them died.
Among non-church members in the surrounding community, about 900 were infected and three died.
Parents in those two religious communities had chosen to put their children and the community's children at risk, neither of whom had any say in the matter.
As an attending physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia during this outbreak, I was angry that these two churches had put children in harm's way, angry that so much suffering and death had occurred in the name of religion.
The experience inspired my book, Bad Faith, When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine.
I intended the book to be a polemic against any religion that enabled this level of unnecessary suffering.
But after speaking with the chaplain at our hospital, I changed my mind.
She too was angry, but for a different reason.
This isn't religion, she said.
These people aren't representing the teachings of Jesus who care deeply about children.
She pointed to a passage in Matthew that read, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.
Putting children at risk was the opposite of his teachings.
She changed my mind, so my book evolved from an anti-religion book to a this is not religion book.
The epigraph reads, To all those who perform good deeds in the name of their faith.
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