Is mandatory vaccination really necessary? Experts around the world collectively say 'Yes '. Mandatory vaccinations have proven, several times throughout history, to be incredibly helpful and at times crucial to the well-being of the human race. Mandating certain vaccines has saved entire nations from disaster and defeat. The lack of vaccinations and medical treatment for some viruses has wiped out populations as a whole. Disease can overthrow a culture and spread like wildfire when not taken precaution against. However, there exists a fierce opposition against the mandate of vaccination by some groups of interest with the existence of adverse effects by vaccination to the human body as a reason. Although vaccination carries some health risks, …show more content…
Globally, vaccination has proved as a tremendous asset in curbing the spread of communicable diseases. Communicable disease such as smallpox, which is highly infectious, was thoroughly eradicated in the 20th century with the help of vaccines. Other notorious contagious diseases, such as measles, polio and rubella are also in the brink of eradication in this modern age through the widespread application of vaccines. By implementing mandatory vaccination, it’s not impossible to achieve that due to vaccination preventing new human carriers of disease from appearing. As vaccination prevents an individual from contracting a particular disease, the individual will not be a carrier for that disease, thus limiting the spread of the disease to others. If vaccination is mandated, the majority of the human population will be protected from contracting a specific disease. Thus, this will ensure that the disease will be unable to spread, as there is no carrier to facilitate the infection. Mandatory vaccination will also ensure that the general population stays vaccinated. Take measles for example; 16 years ago, the transmission of measles in the U.S was declared over. However, as more parents opt out from getting measles vaccination for their children, outbreaks of measles have been reported across the states of U.S. in the year of …show more content…
Less than 1 in a hundred thousand child will suffer from serious adverse effects of vaccination, which is several times higher than the risk of being struck by lightning. The number of reported events of adverse reaction are very low, thus the concerns of vaccine causing irreparable damage is almost unfounded. Besides that, the risk of getting infected by a vaccine-preventable disease is higher than the risk of being saddled with adverse reactions from the vaccine itself. For example, CDC claims that more than 260,000 individuals are hospitalized due influenza annually, with deaths ranging from 3,000 to 46,000 individuals. Besides that, 800,000 to 1.4 million people suffer from chronic hepatitis B, with complications such as liver cancer. This high number of patients suffering from these ailments can be reduced if they received their disease related vaccination in the early age. This shows how mandatory vaccination is essential and the necessity of braving up to face the low risk of adverse