On September 30, Pennsylvania reported its fifth measles-associated death of 2026, with 943 confirmed cases across 39 counties. All five people who died were unvaccinated, at least one of them an infant in Lancaster County. The US now has its highest number of confirmed measles cases in a year since 1991, for a disease declared eliminated here in 2000.
Adventists ought to have opinions about this. We built sanitariums and hospitals, and Loma Linda researchers spent decades studying how our habits affect disease and longevity. Health is supposedly our specialty.
On paper, the church agrees. In October 2021 the General Conference reaffirmed its support for responsible immunization and declined to advocate religious exemptions for the denomination, while still recognizing individual conscience.
The volume went elsewhere. Adventist Today reported that Conrad Vine’s sermon “An Appeal to the Adventist Nobility” passed 66,000 views, with Vine claiming Adventists were losing jobs for refusing COVID vaccination. At the 2022 GC Session, after Ted Wilson urged them not to, delegates voted 1,579 to 203 against even putting vaccination on the agenda.
My view: vaccination is a community decision, and a body treated as a temple also shelters the neighbors. Two MMR doses are about 97% effective, CDC says, and a baby too young for the shot depends on everyone around her. Respect genuine conscience and medical caution, then speak clearly anyway.
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