The significant public health crisis nowadays concerns the poor uptake of vaccines among the children. In 2018 alone, the world recorded over one hundred and forty thousand measles-related deaths, mainly among the children aged five years and below (Feemster & Szipszky, 139). In the recent past, the United States government has put in place robust vaccine safety measures and legislation to increase vaccination uptake rates. However, regardless of these measures, several parents are still worried about the efficacy of these childhood vaccines and the inoculation program. Such concerns have resulted in some parents not allowing their kids to receive some or all endorsed vaccines. The rates of vaccination exceptions in America have increased from approximately one percent in 2006 to about two percent in 2017. Several states in America have reported that six percent of children are exempted from vaccinations. The rate of non-preventable disease, however, has remained higher in children who are exempted from immunization due to non-medical as opposed to their counterparts who receive the vaccination. This paper seeks to support the reasons as to why parents should be required by law to vaccinate their children but also considers circumstances under which parents should be exempted from such legal requirements.
Democratic states have the legal and moral obligation to collectively and individually protect their people. One of the effective strategies for safeguarding the health of the people is through vaccination programmers. Vaccination confers several benefits to individuals and the community at large through herd immunity. Moreover, individuals who chose not to be vaccinated are at high risk of becoming both the victims and vectors of transmitting vaccine-preventable diseases. Childhood immunization has always proved to be an effective strategy in mitigating vaccine-preventable conditions in many countries.
There are several significant stimuli which have traditionally sparked calls for a move to compulsory immunization. One of the significant triggers has been the failure of less aggressive approaches to encouraging people to immunize include the community health awareness, nudge tactics such as demanding immunization certificates for children to be enrolled in schools and several other interventions geared towards reducing immunization hesitancy. When such intervention becomes less effective in increasing vaccination uptake, policymakers should move from persuasion to tactics that unequivocally limit choice to increase vaccination uptake among children to prevent putting the lives of children at risk.
In the past few years, the United States of America has experienced a resurgence of measles. Since 2011, measles cases in America ranges between ten thousand and fifty thousand every year and approximate ten to twenty babies who don’t qualify for immunization die each year (Feemster & Szipszky, 139). Since some children don't qualify to be vaccinated due to their age or health complications such as severe allergies and a compromised immune system resulting from conditions such as leukemia etc., it is important for parents to ensure that all the children who are eligible for vaccination are immunized to protect the infants of transmitting vector-borne disease.
Vaccination protects children against more disease than ever before. Those diseases that once killed hundreds of children have been eliminated through vaccination, and some are even close to extinction. For instant polio which was one of America's nightmares has successfully been eliminated through vaccination. It is, therefore, mandatory for parents to vaccinate their children against all non- preventable disease that affect the health of the child (Socol & Shaki).
It is the collective responsibility of the government and communities to ensure that the health of the children is safeguarded. Vaccination still proves to be the best way of safeguarding children against non-preventable diseases. When children who have not been vaccinated are enrolled in schools, they become susceptible to non-preventable diseases. In the process, they also become vectors for transmitting the disease which not only places their lives and those of their loved one at risks but also the lives of other children as well (Leifer, 13).
To ensure that the health of all the children in learning institutions are safeguarded, States have the mandate of creating compulsory immunization protocols as a requirement for public school enrolment, since that is the most effective way of reinforcing herd immunity (Leifer, 13). Herd immunity is prevalent in a population where a large number of its participants have been vaccinated from certain such that the non-preventable disease cannot gain traction in the society. Attaining and sustaining herd immunity safeguards everyone who has been immunized and all those who have a weak immune system like babies, HIV positive patients and elderly (Betsch et al., 1)
Herd immunity has several benefits, and thus intent of achieving herd immunity is not limited to minimizing the extent of human suffering. Since acquiring herd immunity is an inherently protective method, necessitating school vaccinations as a way of propagating herd immunity is much less expensive for states, health care facilities and the economies than treating victims of the outbreak once it has occurred in the population. For instance, the preventable 1989-91 epidemic of measles cost America a hundred million dollars in direct medical cost. Herd immunity is thus not only the most effective way of avoiding disease and unnecessary misery but also the most cost-effective (Betsch et al., 2).
The health of the future generation can be safeguarded through vaccination. Immunizing children at an early age has reduced and in many cases eliminated diseases that have killed or severely incapacitated several people. By immunizing children against diseases such as rubella, the probability that expectant mothers might pass on this virus to the fetus or the newly born children has declined drastically. If the state enacts laws that increase vaccination uptake now, Future parents may not have to battle with such type of diseases. To guarantee the safety of our future generation, parents should be obliged to vaccinate their children (Betsch et al., 1).
Every state grants exemption to vaccination. For instance, exemption relating to factors such as social and religious issue is granted to American Citizens. Whereas some exemptions are justified, statistics show that states which exemptions are easy to get reports a greater number of the unvaccinated kid as compared to states where the population of unvaccinated children becomes breeding ground for vaccine-preventable diseases which not only poses a danger to the lives of the unvaccinated children but those who are vaccinated as well. A small number of unvaccinated children can there be achieved through enforcing laws that require every parent to vaccinate their children (Morrison et al.).
Whereas mandatory vaccination can help curb the spread and consequences of vaccine-preventable diseases, it is worth noting that some group of people is always adversely affected by vaccines. Such scenarios may require parents to be exempted from vaccinating their children. Some vaccines may be unsafe for children with a compromised immune system such as a kid who are undergoing cancer treatment (chemotherapies options) and those children who have severe vaccine allergies. A vaccine like all drugs can cause serious side effects (Morrison et al.).
In conclusion vaccines play an important role in preventing most of the vaccine-preventable diseases such as misdeals, polio and many more. The best-known strategy of reducing the number of infection in any particular community is by achieving herd immunity. Herd immunity is achieved when 95 percent of the population is vaccinated. To achieve this percentage parents must be mandated under the law to ensure that their children are vaccinated. However, exemptions must be given with moderation, especially if the child in question has a compromised immune system or has severe vaccine allergies. Since states with several exemptions have a large number of unvaccinated children achieving her immunity in such state is difficult. The only practical way of ensuring that the larger percentage of the population is vaccines is through mandatory vaccination (Betsch et al., 6)
Woks Cited
Betsch, Cornelia, et al. "On the benefits of explaining herd immunity in vaccine advocacy." Nature human behavior 1.3 (2017): 1-6.
Feemster, Kristen A., and Claire Szipszky. "Resurgence of measles in the United States: how did we get here?" Current Opinion in Pediatrics 32.1 (2020): 139-144.
Leifer, Cynthia. "Mandatory vaccination will protect all citizens." Evaluation 15 (2020): 13.
Morrison, Maike, Lauren A. Castro, and Lauren Ancel Meyers. "Conscientious vaccination exemptions in kindergarten to eighth-grade children across Texas schools from 2012 to 2018: A regression analysis." PLoS medicine 17.3 (2020): e1003049.
Socol, Y., & Shaki, Y. Y. Vaccinations: Mandatory or Voluntary? Risk–Benefit Analysis. Dose-Response, 18(2), 2020. 1559325820920116.
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