Every year 3 million deaths are prevented by UNICEF’s immunization program. Yet, among the highly educated wealthy of the United States, vaccination rights are plummeting. To rectify the growing problem of parents refusing to vaccinate their children for non-medical reasons, both moral and religious, this behavior should be, quite simply, banned. This action threatens both the unvaccinated and society as a whole. Vaccines improve health and to preserve public health, their efficacy cannot be compromised.
Vaccines prevent lethal and life-threatening diseases. People who aren’t vaccinated are at great risk of acquiring these diseases. The CDC reported that when Japan’s vaccination rate for pertussis decreased from 80% to 10%, the infant deaths due to the disease increased more than 33-fold. The CDC also found that increasing vaccination rates slowed the spread of measles. Indeed, when vaccination rates decreased in the US, a 2008 outbreak occurred. In 2008, 131 cases of measles were reported, more than double the yearly average from 2000-2007. The CDC stated, “This increase was not the result of a greater number of imported cases, but was the result of greater viral transmission after importation into the United States, leading to a greater number of importation-associated cases.” Most of the cases reported were among school-age children who had not been vaccinated because of their parents’ objections. In this case and many others, children’s health took a backseat to their parent’s anti-vaccine beliefs whether they be ethical, pseudo-scientific, or religious beliefs. These aren’t simple diseases that don’t have consequences. Measles can cause hearing loss or death, even in healthy children. Parents’ do not have concerns that are born out of data. According to the CDC, the risk of a serious reaction to a vaccine is less than one in a million. Contrast this minuscule risk to the risk of the flu while unvaccinated. In 2012-2013 flu season, 90% of those who died were unvaccinated. When parents refuse to vaccinate in the interest of their own children, it becomes the government’s duty to ensure the health of its citizens. This would be accomplished by mandatory vaccinations of healthy children.
Not vaccinating does more than just threaten the individual; it threatens people who can’t receive vaccines, like pregnant women, young children, and those with immune diseases. In order for society to remain healthy as a whole, vaccination rates have to remain high. Emily Lee of the Center for American Progress stated “Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective and successful public health interventions. Each year, vaccines save an estimated 6 million to 9 million lives worldwide, including the lives of 3 million children. In the United States, vaccinations have decreased most vaccine-preventable childhood diseases by more than 95 percent. Vaccines have minimized or eliminated outbreaks of certain diseases that were once lethal to large numbers of people, including measles and polio in the United States and smallpox worldwide. But because the bacteria and viruses that cause diseases still exist, the public health gains achieved through vaccines can only be maintained by ensuring that vaccination rates remain high enough to prevent outbreaks.” This is a concept known as herd immunity, and it is critical in maintaining public health. Vaccination helps more than just the vaccinated person. By breaking the chain of infection, vaccination makes it harder for infection to spread, therefore protecting those who can’t be vaccinated. But for herd immunity to work, a high proportion of the population must be vaccinated. Again according to Lee, “clusters of exemptions have emerged in individual communities, eliminating those communities’ herd immunity and increasing their risk of experiencing an outbreak. In the community of Ashland, Oregon, for example, the vaccination exemption rate for schoolchildren during the 2001-02 school year was 11 percent, compared with a rate of 2.7 percent for the entire state and 3 percent nationwide. These exemption clusters are dangerous because if enough individuals within a particular community receive exemptions, then the community will lose its herd immunity. In turn, this loss of immunity increases the risk of infection not only for other exemptors—both nonmedical and medical—but also for some individuals who have been vaccinated since no vaccine is 100 percent effective.” By mandating vaccines for those who are healthy enough to receive them, the government will protect the public health, a core mission of any society.
Refusing to vaccinate has far-reaching consequences for both an individual and society at large. When people refuse to vaccinate themselves or their children it is the duty of the government’s role to ensure the public health by mandating vaccination.
Liberal Talking Head 