“Why should I get vaccinated? Don’t they cause autism and have other risks?” The concern whether vaccines should be made mandatory has been a topic of debate recently as people are becoming apprehensive about the safety of immunizations. Americans are doubting the effectiveness of vaccines, and unfortunately are deciding to refuse vaccination. Refusing vaccinations threatens the defense against diseases not only for that individual, but for our community as well. People who do not receive vaccinations put everybody at risk, and this introduces a major concern for our public health. My proposal to benefit our community, and to help preserve the health of the new generation is that vaccinations should be made mandatory for people that are not …show more content…
When children get sick they miss school, and parents have to take time off work to care for them, in addition the medical expenses can be a drag as well. In the website ProCon.Org the page titled “Should Any Vaccines Be Required for Children?” addresses the fact that “vaccines cost less in time and money”. This site explains that when children get sick with the flu, “they are contagious for about eight days” and that they “cost their parents an average of 11 to 73 hours of wages (about $222 to $1,456) and $300 to $4,000 in medical expenses.” All this money and time consumed could have been prevented if vaccines were mandatory. What’s worse is that in January 2008, a measles outbreak occurred in San Diego and “resulted in 11 unvaccinated children catching measles and a resulting net public-sector cost of $10,376 per case (or, $123,512 total) due to emergency vaccination and outbreak response.” Due to people not getting vaccinated we spend lots of wasted time and money when this could have been easily prevented. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases addresses that vaccines are “much cheaper to prevent a disease than to treat it” and that in 2005 study on economic impact of child immunization researchers “estimated that for every dollar spent, the vaccination program saved more than $5 in direct costs and approximately $11 dollars in additional costs to society” (2). As can be seen mandatory …show more content…
According to the article “The Benefits of Vaccination Outweigh the Risks” from opposing viewpoints in context, “It is true that natural infection almost always causes better immunity than vaccines” however “The price paid for immunity after natural infection might be pneumonia from chickenpox, mental retardation from Haemophilus Influenzae type b, pneumonia from pneumococcus, birth defects from rubella, liver cancer from hepitits B virus, or death from measles” (5). As can be seen, natural immunity can work although it is extremely risky and you can even die from it. Important to realize, some vaccines actually have a better immune response than natural infection such as the Human papillomavirus vaccine, Tetanus vaccine, Haemophilus influenza type b, and Pnewmococcal vaccine (5). With mandatory vaccines, you will not have the heavy risks associated with natural immunity and as mentioned above, some vaccinations will be even more effective. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, makes an important point stating that “during certain stages of the illness, you may be contagious and pass the disease to family members, friends, or others who come in contact with you” (2). With natural immunity, it is required to first get the disease and somehow survive through it however by rejecting the vaccine you can pass