Compulsary Vaccinations On The Horizon?
Many forms of preventable illness that were thought to be almost eradicated are sharply increasing as of late. There are a few places that are being drastically effected, many children are falling ill and some are dying due to illness such as whooping cough, measles, and more. While this is a topic that I’ve written about before there is a larger and growing debate over the issue.
In the interest of society at large lawmakers are discussing making vaccinations mandatory. In part due to fears of repeats of past polio and other disease outbreaks. There have already been a frightening rise in reported outbreaks of many diseases thought to have been a thing of the past.
While there is a buffer for un vaccinated children due to so many being vaccinated (called ‘Herd Immunity’, the buffer is getting smaller by the day. Piled on top of the endorsements of celebrities in the anti-vaccination movement there is growing concern for the public safety over the return of these illness.
This article from the Examiner expresses the concern perfectly:
Vaccination as a concept works only when a great majority of the population is vaccinated. In diseases that are transmitted between individuals, vaccination acts to break the chain of infection and spread. An infected Person A cannot infect an immunized Person B, thereby limiting the range of an outbreak. As a side effect, widespread vaccination can also protect a small group of unvaccinated individuals as well, since it is likely that a disease outbreak will not reach the unvaccinated population due to the great number of vaccinated individuals in the general population. This is called “herd immunity,” and the likely rationale behind allowing a limited number of exemptions from mandatory vaccination. However, should the population of unvaccinated individuals exceed a critical fraction of the population disease outbreaks become more likely, spreading from vaccinated carriers of the disease to unvaccinated individuals or between unvaccinated individuals themselves. There is even a chance that unvaccinated individuals can even pose a threat to those who have been vaccinated, since no vaccine is 100% effective and relies on mass vaccination to provide a secure barrier against disease outbreaks.
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