In 1796 English doctor, Edward Jenner, tested the first vaccine. The vaccine was for smallpox and was tested on a healthy eight-year-old boy by rubbing some of the cowpox virus onto an open scratch. He developed a single blister, but it soon went away. After this the boy was immune to smallpox and therefore never caught the disease. This vaccine taught the young boy’s immune system to fight off the cowpox teaching his immune system to be able to fight off the smallpox as well. This young man went on to live a healthy life. After Jenner published his findings in a medical journal the practice of vaccinations quickly spread. Since the development of this first vaccine, dozens of other vaccines have been created that have saved millions of lives. Even though vaccines have been credited for saving millions of lives some people are still unsure if their life saving benefits out-weigh their possible risks. Much of this doubt it due to misinformation and lack of education on the issue. Vaccines are not only safe for children but are necessary to protect their health and others through herd immunity. Children need to be vaccinated and should be vaccinated to attend public schools and to enter doctors’ offices. 

Imagine that you are laying in bed covered in a painful blistering rash as your vision begins to blur. By the end of the day you can no longer see the pictures on your wall that hang only a few feet away. Doctors have said “its too late, there is nothing else we can do but make you comfortable”.  This was once the unavoidable fate of the smallpox virus. However, with modern medicine this is a preventable disease and all it takes is one vaccine. No one would every wish a scenario like this one on themselves for anyone else they love and or care about. However, whenever someone chooses not to vaccinate their children they are taking the risk of subjecting their children to this. At one point in time it was not uncommon for seven percent of all deaths within a year to be caused by smallpox. Thankfully today because of vaccines this number is down in the United States to just a few cases a year. However, with the vaccination rate slowly dropping the risk of smallpox coming back at a greater force in the future is becoming a very real possibility (Eradication of Diseases). This is why the way we look at vaccines as a nation needs to change, laws need to be made and followed more strictly.      

When it comes to the topic of vaccinations, most of us will agree that the diseases that they prevent are truly awful. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether or not vaccines should be made mandatory. Whereas some are convinced that vaccines are harmful, others maintain that they are perfectly safe. Those who believe that vaccines are harmful strongly appose the idea of making vaccines mandatory. Those who believe that vaccines are safe have more mixed feelings towards whether or not vaccines should be mandatory. Some believe that vaccines should be one hundred percent mandatory where others think that they should not and many others fall somewhere in-between. With there being so many different views on this issue the best way to handle the situation would be with a compromise. This compromise would make vaccines mandatory to attend public schools and doctors’ offices. This mean that if you homeschool your children than you will not be forced to vaccinate your children. This compromise insures the publics safety while still giving parents the right to choose what they do with there children. 

For those who believe that vaccines are not safe their opinion is not supported by the majority of the medical community. Willingham and Helft state “Because vaccines induce immunity without causing illness, they are a comparatively safe and effective way to fill a community with disease-resistant people.” In other words, Willingham and Helft believe that vaccines are safe and the best way to promote herd immunity. This is not an uncommon opinion and is supported by many other doctors. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention vaccines are the safest known way to prevent and individual from diseases such as; polio, mumps, measles, smallpox, rubella, tetanus and many other vaccine preventable diseases. Since the introduction of these vaccines the rate at which they present themselves have dropped dramatically. These diseases cases have dropped anywhere from 85 to 100 percent since the early 20th century (Center of Disease Control and Prevention). Not only are vaccines safe and a reliable way to prevent disease for the individual that receives them, they also help protect the people they come into contact with.    

As a society, we rely on what is called herd immunity or community immunity. Herd immunity functions that if a large majority, usually around 85 percent, of a population is vaccinated from a particular disease then that disease will no longer pose a threat to that community (Helft). A great example of herd immunity is the chicken pox vaccine. The chicken pox vaccine was introduced to the public in 1995. Not only did the chicken pox death rate drop by 97 percent; but there were no deaths of children that were too young to be immunized caused by chicken pox. This is because these children were protected from the disease through herd immunization (Helft). Even though herd immunity is one of the most important reasons to vaccinate ones’ child it is also one of the most forgot reasons. In a survey conducted of parents regarding their decision making process on whether or not to vaccinate their children; only 11.3 percent of the participants mentioned herd immunity being part of this decision making process. Not only did very few people take herd immunity into consideration only 45.3 percent of the people surveyed even knew what herd immunity was and understood its basic concept (Sobo). This is an alarming number because so many people rely on the process of community immunity. Because of the chicken pox example, we know that infants rely on herd immunity but it does not stop there. There are many people who rely on herd immunity: those with immune disorders, going though chemotherapy, the elderly, those with HIV and/or with other less common health concerns. The reason these individuals must rely on herd immunity is because they are either unable to be vaccinated due to their condition or their immune system has becomes so compromised that the vaccines they have received before no longer work well enough to protect them (Helft).  

Because of the knowledge of herd immunity and how important it is, all fifty states have made laws that make certain vaccines mandatory. All fifty states require a child to vaccinated against six vaccine preventable diseases, these diseases are; diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, rubella and measles. Even though all fifty states see the importance and necessity of vaccines there is still no national law regarding vaccines. With no national law about vaccines, states are able to have varying requirements. Most all states allow for exemption from the mandatory vaccines. These excuses are defined by four different categories; medical temporary, medical permanent, religious and philosophical. An individual can be exempt from receiving the mandatory vaccines philosophical reasons meaning that “the administration of one or more vaccines contradicts personal beliefs” (SchoolVaxVeiw). This exception really just makes vaccines not mandatory at all. Thankfully is is the least common excepted category in most states.  Most states, including South Carolina, only except medical and religious reasons to not vaccinate a child. Even though this sounds much better then allowing all of the categories it is still quite easy to get around these laws. I went to middle school with an unvaccinated girl who was exempt from this law for religious reasons. However, because I knew her well I knew that vaccines were not in fact against her religion but, instead against her mother’s philosophical views. With South Carolina law stating that children can be exempt from mandatory vaccines for religious reasons my friends mother was allowed to work around the system to get her child exempt because of her personal views. Though this story is particular to me it is not the only case and happens more other than most people think. Since laws have been put into place to make vaccines mandatory in school the recorded vaccination rate in schools have not changed as much as expected do to the rules that allow for individuals to be exempt from these laws for non-medical reasons (North, Anna). Those who choose to willingly not get their children vaccinated but every other child in that school at risk of a possible outbreak (Brody, Jane E.).

These risk could be dramatically decreased by revising the laws that already exist and better enforcing these laws. One change to these laws that would help greatly would be to only allow for medical exemption from vaccines in a public school. To be expect for medical reasons is much stricter and better regulated than being exempt for religious or philosophical reasons. Part of this is do to the fact that to be medically excused you must have hard proof. This proof is often in the form of medical test and testimony from a doctor. Making this a national law would help make sure that these rules a constant from state to state making it easier to regulate and inforce. If made a national law, there could be nation wide regulations and protocol for the mandating of vaccines within public schools.

Changing the law however, is only half of this battle. The other half is how to enforce these rues. Over the years many ideas have come about on how to enforce laws pertaining to childhood vaccinates. Recently one particular idea has been receiving a lot of attention from many people including politicians and medical personal. This idea is to treat the breaking of these laws as child neglect (Parasidis). The reason that this idea is getting so much attention is because many already believe that because of the way most child neglect laws are already written not vaccinating a child already falls under the category of neglect. Foe example the New York state law states neglect as aa child “whose physical, mental or emotional condition has been impaired or is in imminent danger of becoming impaired” (New York Family Court Act). Not providing a child with a vaccine that would protect the child from a deadly disease is putting the child in “imminent danger” because you are putting your child at risk of catching diseases such as; mumps, measles, polio, rubella, whooping cough and many more. Meaning that not vaccinating a child could easily be seen as a case of child neglect. 

Schools are not the only places that need these laws to insure the safety of everyone that gathers there. Another place that relies highly on the effectiveness of herd immunity is doctors offices. Pediatric doctors’ offices rely heavily on herd immunity because of the ages of the patients that are seen in these offices.  Children are not recommended to start receiving most vaccines until at least two months of age. This means that these young children must go unprotected until they are old enough to receive these vaccines (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). The only protection from these diseases that these young children have are from herd immunity and the protection that the people around them are providing for them. The first two or so doctor’s appointments can be very scary for parents because being in a doctors’ office is likely the most people a child this age has been around at once so they are exposed to many more germs than other settings. This could be a terrible thing if an unvaccinated child comes in for an appointment at the same time as one of these young unvaccinated babies. An unvaccinated child can be carrying disease when they do not even know about yet (Brody). Meaning the poor un protected baby is now exposed to these harmful germs and could easily contract the same disease that the other child is carrying.

 This terrible situation could very easily be prevented with one simple change in policy. If the doctors’ office only takes on patients that are vaccinated it will automatically make the office a safer place for children that can not be vaccinated. This is very easily accomplishable because doctors’ offices already have the medical history of every patient meaning they can quickly tell if a child is vaccinated and should be allowed in their office or not. This is not a new concept and is already in place in many pediatric offices. Knowing that this already works so well it makes it easy for this policy to be transferred to other offices. If doctors’ offices will not take on a non vaccinated individuals people with be more likely to think harder about their decision to not vaccinate. With people spending more time thinking this over hopefully individuals will have more time to become better educated on the issue to the point that they choose to vaccinate their children.  However great this policy may sound and how beneficial it would be there is one major issue. Where would non-vaccinated children get health care? There would have to be some specific doctors’ offices that care for non vaccinated patients making sure that they also receive the medical care they need. Or another option would be to have doctors’ offices set aside a few days a month were they see non vaccinated patients. This would make sure that small children are still protected through herd immunity when in the clinic during regular working hours and also still allow for non vaccinated children to get treated as well.

Many people, including people you may know, rely on herd immunity to keep them healthy and safe. This is why it is so important for us as a community to make sure that enough people are vaccinated to insure that are immunity will transfer to those who can not be protected in any other way. Many people will go to great lengths to protect the ones they love but, vaccines are something simple that can be done to protect so many yet it is over looked. Hopefully with time vaccines will be made completely mandatory but for now a simple compromise between mandatory and not mandatory will have to do. With a few simple policy changes vaccines could become mandatory to attend public schools and to enter doctor’s offices. These changes would protect so many individuals and hopefully eliminate any and all threats of vaccine preventable diseases.           
