Vaccination essay

Should Vaccination be Mandatory?

Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases of the 20th century. In America, smallpox spread among the population at a very fast rate and killed over 50% of all those who contracted it. It was estimated that over 300 million people across the world. The spread of the disease was witnessed more during and after the First World War. Inoculated vaccinations, the smallpox was introduced by Jenner Edwards. There are countless other diseases that have vaccines which protect people from contracting diseases. Development of vaccines was a game changer in the field of medicine. Instead, searching for cures of diseases, focus on vaccines prevents the spread of disease which eventually eradicates the disease from the face of the earth as was the case with smallpox (De Soto, 23). Mandatory vaccination has been a debatable topic for years, due to the loss of lives caused by diseases whose vaccines are available. Thesis: Mandatory vaccination should be implemented in the United States to help eradicate diseases whose vaccines are available as well as save the lives of children from deadly diseases.

From a historical perspective, the debate on making vaccinations mandatory has been in existence for centuries. There are numerous societies that have a negative opinion on vaccinations, while an even larger group of people are ignorant of the significance of vaccinations. The eradication of smallpox, a deadly disease in the 20th century is living proof of the significance of vaccination to the general of all people in the United States (Netzley, 21). Some of the reasons for the resistance to vaccination apart from ignorance is the lack of basic education on facts about vaccines. There are numerous misconceptions help by different groups of people especially those with religious affiliations that don’t believe in modern medicine. However, the general public needs to understand the significance of vaccination through campaigns by the healthcare department.

The debate on mandatory vaccination is aimed at eradicating diseases that spread and caused death among the people. With mandatory vaccination, the health department is able to deal with diseases that have vaccines and protect generations to come from the effects of such disease. The aspects that prevent the implementation of mandatory vaccination in the united states is the existence of civil rights that needs to be upheld by the government at all cost. Mandatory vaccination in the United States will lead to the violation of the civil rights granted to the United States citizen by the constitution (Offit, 17).

The need for mandatory vaccination, however, is based on the fact that vaccines are quite helpful in the protection of the lives of people and those around them. Research indicates that millions of lives have been saved due to the introduction of numerous vaccines across the world. The United States Center for Disease control CDC is one of the organizations in the United States tasked with studying and preventing the spread of diseases (De Soto, 27). Reports from the CDC show that vaccines are safe and probably the most significant invention in the field of medicine in the 20th century. The need for mandatory vaccinations arises from the high cases of disease spreading and deaths which result from diseases that vaccines are available in healthcare facilities across the country.