Vaccination Should Be Mandatory

Vaccinations are essential to the health of a community. As David Keller (a physician and former Chief of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Program with the New Mexico Department of Health, and parent, puts it), “In reality, nature places foreign substances….in his body all the time. Some of those are harmless, but others can be deadly. By using vaccines, I can carefully introduce into his body substances that mimic harmful foreign substances and, in so doing, teach his immune system to protect him from potentially deadly diseases.” The truth is that vaccinations keep us safe. And although you may have some uncertainty, vaccinations are in many cases the safest option. Whooping cough has had a one hundred percent decrease throughout the
This is proof that vaccines do work- that no one can deny. All of these diseases are preventable if the herd immunity persists, but this only happens if a certain percentage of the population is vaccinated. The country is, in recent years, lagging behind in this respect. The Measles vaccination rate needs to be at least 92% at minimum. We have a 91% measles vaccination rate. And predictably, measles -which had in 2000 been declared completely eliminated- is coming back. The trend continues throughout several preventable diseases. They might seem minor now and here, but in other countries that cannot afford vaccinations, and in times when they weren’t used or even invented, their diseases were common and in many cases, deadly. As Randy Bergen (a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases) says, “(Vaccines) prevent diseases that can maim and kill.” History has proven that without vaccines, we’re sitting ducks. And it’s only a matter of time before a shark in the form of plague will arise. We mustn't forget that vaccines historically work, and should not be dismissed. Time has proven just how essential vaccinations really are not only to you directly, but also to your community and everyone around you (due to herd