Kentucky anti-vaxxer gets hearing over chickenpox school ban

WALTON, Ky. — An unvaccinated student in Kentucky will get his day in court after suing because he can’t participate in extracurricular activities during a chickenpox outbreak.

The Courier Journal reports 18-year-old Jerome Kunkel’s case will be heard in court April 1.

Unvaccinated students have been ordered by the state health department to stay away from the Our Lady of the Assumption Church school and its activities during the outbreak.

Kunkel’s family founded the school and church, which opposes anything to do with abortion. He says the vaccine violates his beliefs because it’s produced using cell lines derived from aborted fetuses generations ago. The National Catholic Bioethics Center says the vaccine is OK because it doesn’t actually contain aborted cells.

Health department lawyer Jeffrey C. Mando says the state properly used its authority.

“The fact that I can’t finish my senior year in basketball, like, our last couple of games, it’s pretty devastating. I mean, you go through four years of high school playing basketball, you look forward to your senior year,” Kunkle told WLWT last week.