Vaccines are a medical advancement that provide active acquired immunity to a particular disease (Merriam-Webster). Vaccines have been utilized since the late 1800's when diseases like small pox and yellow fever demanded a solution from American and British doctors (Vaccine Timeline). Shortly after the invention of the first vaccines, came the debate between pro-vaccination activists and anti-vaccination activists. This debate is so significant because it affects almost everybody. Most Americans are faced with this controversy directly, when they make the decision for or against vaccinating themselves or their children. Not only does this issue affect families, but it also causes debates within the workplace and in school systems. An important question being asked today is: do the benefits of vaccinations outweigh the negative effects enough to justify making it a requirement for all children to receive them? Responses to this question are generally broken up into two different categories, making this a two sided debate. One side is pro-vaccination and the other is anti-vaccination. Each position has numerous arguments that help to explain their point of view. People that support vaccinations make up the majority of the American population. Vaccination proponents argue with medically based evidence. Whereas, Anti-vaccination supporters argue their side with a wider variety of evidence including religious, ethical, and political beliefs. People who advocate against vaccination include those who choose to ignore scientific explanations due to religious beliefs and those citizens who do not want the government making medical decisions for them. Vaccination proponents argue that there is scientific evidence that proves vaccines are safe and effective, adverse effects are rare, misconceptions about adverse effects are common, and vaccines save lives. These arguments answer the question proposed in the first paragraph by explaining how vaccinations should be a requirement because they prove that there are no adverse effects significant enough to outweigh the fact that vaccinations increase the health of the population.

One important factor of this debate is that many of the anti-vaccination proponent's arguments are not supported by facts. A commonly disputed topic is the link between autism and vaccinations. Many people avoid vaccinating their children because they fear immunizations can cause this disease. This fear comes from observations made by doctor Andrew Wakefield (Salman). Wakefield wrote an article based off of falsifiable data that was published in a medical journal. This article, stated that the MMR vaccine (a vaccine that prevents measles, mumps, and rubella) causes autism. His report grabbed the public's attention and caused a lot of fear in communities. In 2004, the journal retracted the article because the information couldn't be verified by scientific research (Vaccine Side Effects and Adverse Events). Ensuing this incident, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Institute of Medicine have both proven that there is no traceable link between autism and the MMR Vaccine (Salman). The issue is that many people in todays society aren't educated enough about this topic to understand that there should be no fear surrounding autism and immunizations.

Autism is not the only issue that has been blamed as a ramification of vaccines. Other side effects such as intestinal problems, neurological, and gastrointestinal diseases have been blamed on various different vaccines (Vaccine Side Effects and Adverse Events). The CDC and FDA created a system they call VAERS, which stands for the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. It has been around for nearly two decades and it allows the medical community to determine whether or not a vaccine really is causing alleged side effects. With the use of VAERS, doctors are able to document reported side effects and confirm and maintain overall safety of vaccines. VAERS data shows extremely low statistics ranging from only 10-15% of side effects being serious enough to hospitalize a patient (Vaccine Side Effects and Adverse Events). These numbers prove that side effects are rare which points out the opponent's ill-considered fears of vaccine side effects. 

By understanding the causes of anti-vaccination activist's fear based claims, one can see how easy it is to discredit their arguments. Many people who oppose mandating vaccines in school systems are making this choice out of fear. Daniel Salmon, a doctor in the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, wrote an article summarizing interviews he did with parents. In these interviews, he asked questions to find out what was "driving their fear" (Salman). He discovered that media plays a role in instilling fear in parents. For example, cases like the false autism scare by Andrew Wakefield get blown up in the media and create worries in uneducated parents. He also mentioned that there are a number of websites circulating with misinformation that add to parent's concerns. He concluded his cases by saying fear of vaccinations stem from parents who are either uneducated or improperly educated on vaccine's side effects. This conclusion means that many people who fight against mandatory vaccinations are doing so out of fear, rather than arguing valid reasons.

In addition to fear, religion is another factor that creates opponents in this debate. Many religions do not support vaccinations and the First Amendment supports their right to refuse them (VaccinesProCon). This factor is frustrating in the vaccine debate because there isn't much room for negotiation. Religion is a strong value for many people in America and they are protected by the constitution from being forced to immunize. Some Christians believe that it is better to be infected by a natural disease than it is to be infected by a drug that could potentially prevent it (VaccinesProCon). Amish culture believe that vaccinations are capable of weakening the immune system (VaccinesProCon). Although science may not support the lifestyle of certain religions, their beliefs are widely accepted by a lot of people. There is not much that can be done to change their minds because the only way to argue against these religious beliefs is by explaining the scientific evidence.

One piece of scientific evidence that supports the fact that vaccines are safe and effective involves the HPV Vaccine. The newly approved HPV Vaccine (human papillomavirus) is an impressive example of the benefits vaccines have on the American community. "It has proven to be 100% effective in preventing the 4 HPV strains that are responsible for 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts (Vamos). These statistics are the basis of a medical breakthrough that facilitates the prevention of a potentially deadly cancer that has infected over 20 million Americans (Vamos). The success rate of this particular vaccine is enough to justify making it a requirement for all children to receive it, before attending school. Furthermore, the polio vaccine serves as additional evidence that helps to justify this. Sickness from Polio is no longer a common issue in the United States. Some may argue that because Polio is no longer prevalent in our country, it is unnecessary to administer vaccines that prevent it. But, an issue arises when people travel across borders to places such as Pakistan, contract the disease, and spread it to an unvaccinated child in America (VaccinesProCon). This example, is why it is important to continue to administer immunizations and make use of the tools scientists have come up with to keep the public healthy.

Although vaccines are mostly safe and effective it is important to discuss that they do come with some side effects. Scientists are continuing their efforts in increasing the safety of vaccines by working with a component called antigens. Antigens are the ingredient in vaccines that activate the immune system. Recently, scientists have been successful in reducing the amount of antigens present in a vaccine. Numbers have been reduced from thousands to less than 300 (Carroll). This reduction means the immune system requires less work to fight off an infection, which decreases the cause of side effects. In many cases, people who choose not vaccinate their children do so out of fear that there will be harmful side effects. These lower antigen values, can put to rest many parents fears of harming their children.

Furthermore, these side effects are rare. Anaphylaxis, a medical term used to describe a severe allergic reaction, is the most frequent adverse reaction to vaccines. This side effect occurs in "one per several hundred thousand to one per million vaccinations" (VaccinesProCon). The Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN put this statistic into perspective by explaining, "you are 100 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to have a serious allergic reaction to the vaccine that protects you against measles" (VaccinesProCon). This comparison is a good relation between scientific evidence and reality, because it allows an ordinary person to understand how rare the effects are. These statistics are extremely low and serve as a good reason for why people should stop worrying about adverse effects. 

An additional reason for people to stop having fear of vaccines is the presence of agencies like the Center for Disease Control and the US Food and Drug Administration. Their sole purpose is to ensure things like vaccinations are safe. They ensure safety by regulating how many and what ingredients go into vaccines. They conduct research to understand what dose of certain ingredients like thimerosal or aluminum can go into the vaccine before it becomes unsafe and they make sure that those limits are not reached (VaccinesProCon). They ensure proper testing procedures are carried out and they do not license a vaccine to the public until it has been tested for 10 years (VaccinesProCon). After they are released to the public, these agencies continue to regulate and monitor them. If vaccines were unsafe, the public would not have access to them. But, the United States has developed a system to ensure that parents do not need to be concerned about the general safety of vaccines. In addition to the Center for Disease Control and the US Food and Drug Administration there are a number of additional organizations that confirm the safety of vaccinations. A quote from the US Department of Health and Human Safety Services reads: "Vaccines are some of the safest medical products available" (VaccinesProCon). There are numerous verified agencies whose job is to validate the safety and effectiveness of drugs. These organizations put in time and money into research and the creation of vaccines, which is why denying inoculations is foolish and shouldn't be an option in schools.

All of the time and research put into vaccines, grants them the ability to treat diseases as complicated as cancer and as basic as a flu virus. When making the decision to vaccinate a child, the focus is generally just on health factors. But, if this debate is viewed from another perspective, like administering flu vaccines to medical workers in healthcare facilities, more variables arise. When the patient is a grown adult with medical knowledge and political views, the decision can become more complicated. Mandating vaccines to employees in a workplace involves questions on ethics and whether or not the mandate is constitutional. A research study investigating the ethics of mandating flu vaccines concludes that mandating flu shots infringes on an individual's right to refuse unwanted treatment (Strengthening Routine Immunization). This same issue can be related to mandating vaccines to children in schools. Although, it is violating basic freedoms rights, it also saves lives and promotes public health. Basic rights are important to American citizens, but they should not take priority over the health of children. These political views should be set aside in order to protect young generations who are entering the school system. 

School systems should mandate vaccines to all children in order to promote "community immunity." Community immunity is a term used to describe the protection of a population against outbreaks of contagious diseases (VaccinesProCon). If a large enough percentage of a community is vaccinated, then the likelihood of an outbreak is low. Unfortunately, there are some members of the population who are unable to be vaccinated because of factors like age or poor health. These members rely on community immunity to protect them. In 2012, the biggest outbreak of pertussis (commonly known as whooping cough) occurred since 1955. This outbreak occurred because in 2011, 49 states in America did not reach 92-94% community immunity. The devastating outbreak could have been prevented by mandating immunizations in schools.  It would have helped ensure that those who were physically able to get inoculated, did so, in order to help the community as a whole.

Above all, vaccines most obvious benefit is that they save lives. All of the previous factors and issues are insignificant compared to the reality of life or death. In other words, none of these issues would matter to a parent if their child were faced with life or death. The parent would choose life, and vaccines allow life to be an option for so many children. The United Nations Foundation states that vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases annually (VaccinesProCon). The Center for Disease Control estimated that between the years of 1994 and 2014, over 700,000 children's lives were saved thanks to vaccinations (VaccinesProCon). Most childhood vaccines are 90-99% effective according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (VaccinesProCon). These numbers depict the effectiveness of immunizations in children. And the numbers are high enough to look past minor side effects that could result from such beneficial tools.

Given these points, if vaccines were mandated without exceptions in schools, then the percentage of children who were safe from life threatening diseases would increase. This increase could be significant to society because it would result in an increase in public health. Health is the basis of human life and in order for a population to be successful, they need to be healthy. The government needs to enforce vaccination rules nationwide, in both public and private schools. The number of exceptions to this law needs to decrease; only those who are not healthy enough to receive immunizations should be exempt. There should be no exceptions for religious, political, or ethical reasons. Changes need to be made on both the state and federal levels in order for this to be successfully implemented. These changes are necessary because with the use of vaccines, doctors have come up with a way to prevent so many harmful diseases and save lives. It is foolish to not mandate inoculations, because it leaves a portion of the community at risk for preventable problems. All of the benefits that come from getting vaccinated show that vaccines are more valuable to public health than they are detrimental.

