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Anil Verman
Mr. Davis
Government 1
26 October 2016
Mock Congress Research Paper: Mandatory Vaccination
The United States Declaration of Independence states that all citizens have the
unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is because of these rights that the
United States should mandate vaccinations for all of its citizens. A vaccine is a substance that
promotes the production of antibodies and immunizes against one or more diseases. It should be
mandated that every parent vaccinate their child, because vaccinations would reduce the number
of outbreaks, save money and lives, and reduce or eradicate diseases that affected people just a
few generations ago.
Vaccines should be mandated because it will prevent against disease outbreaks. There are
several communities in the United States that do not believe in immunizations, subsequently, it is
these communities that are causing many outbreaks. In The Yale Journal of Biology and
Medicine, author, Anthony Ciolli writes about this subject. He states that, Religious
communities particularly Christian Science, Amish, and Mennonite communities have
been the source of many preventable disease outbreaks in recent years. Diseases from polio to
measles to rubella have resurfaced with increasing frequency in the United States due to herd
immunity being lost in such religious ghettos (Ciolli). This quote by Ciolli shows that
vaccination is an important part of keeping our nation healthy and prosperous. Infact, California
has already required all of its students to be vaccinated against diseases like measles and
whooping cough before they are allowed to enroll in public schools. Those students who have
medical reasons for being unvaccinated must provide a doctors note, and any parents unwilling
to immunize their child for religious or personal reasons must home-school or send their child to
an alternative independent study program off school grounds (Alter). One might think that the
ultimatum of vaccination or no public schooling is harsh, however, here is an example of why
vaccinations are so imperative: A girl who went to Romania and caught measles came back to
her home in Indiana and attended a church picnic consisting of 500 people. Of those 500 people,
465 people had either been previously immunized or had had measles in the past. Of that group
of 465, three people got measles. Of the remaining 35 people who had never been immunized, 31

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people got measles (Boghani). In this specific case about 89% of the people not vaccinated
caught measles, while only 0.6% of people who were immunized got infected. This shows how
effective and necessary immunizations are. All of these pieces of evidence support the claim that
mandatory vaccinations will prevent against the outbreak of diseases that are both, deadly, and
expensive to control.
If everyone was immunized, healthcare costs and death rates would be drastically lower.
Indeed, the CDC estimates that about 42,000 deaths and 20 million cases of disease are
prevented by immunization each generation (Hendriksz). These statistics help to illuminate the
effectiveness of vaccinations in the United States, and if saving lives is not enough, vaccines also
save billions of dollars in healthcare costs each year. Ciolli mentions in his article, Mandatory
School Vaccinations: The Role of Tort Law, that the cost to treat people with vaccinepreventable diseases amounts to nearly $10 billion worth of healthcare costs each year in the
U.S. (Ciolli). After reading these figures it seems obvious that, instead of spending copious
amounts of money trying to cure sick people, we should really be spending money in the pursuit
of eradicating disease. Interestingly enough, undervaccinated kids tend to live in households near
the poverty level and in a central city (Smith). If we diverted funds to helping the less-fortunate
children get vaccinated, then they would not need to spend as much on expensive medical bills
and medicine. This is yet another reason why mandatory vaccinations will help this nations
citizens. An example of how immunizations have decreased morbidity rates comes from the
Oxford Journals, in the article "Mandatory Influenza Vaccination of Health Care Workers:
Translating Policy to Practice". This article discusses the effects that the influenza vaccine had
on healthcare workers and their patients. In nursing homes where workers were vaccinated,
residents had shown a decrease in death rates. Additionally, employee illnesses and absences
decreased as well (Babcock). This piece of evidence shows that immunizations have a direct
correlation with the rate of morbidity, therefore showing that vaccinations are necessary in
stopping the spread of disease.
Vaccines have reduced, or in some cases, destroyed many diseases that killed or severely
disabled people just a few generations ago. A vaccine helped to reduce the spread of disease
within Japan in the 1950s. The Japanese were facing a flu epidemic and so a school-based
vaccination program was enacted that made it mandatory for all children to be immunized from
influenza. Subsequently, deaths due to influenza and pneumonia were reduced by about 50%.

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Furthermore, death from all causes dropped (showing that the illness was undiagnosed). The
study also showed that for every 420 children immunized, one elderly life was saved. Once the
pandemic was under control and the mandatory vaccination program ended, death rates rose
dramatically over the following years (Ryan). This example shows how effective vaccinations
are at reducing the lethality of diseases, and it also shows how much worse off people are
without mandatory vaccinations. The notion that vaccines reduce disease rates and promote a
healthier posterity is widely accepted amongst the medical community, in fact the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services have said that immunization protects future
generations (Five Important Reasons...). This is significant because the U.S. government
recognizes the prominence of vaccinations. Another example of how immunization reduces
disease rates is a quote from Time Magazine that says, Vaccination can reduce the risk of
getting influenza 70% to 80% and is the most effective way to curb the pandemic (It's A Jab Or
Your Job). This is important because it shows yet another source that advocates for
immunizations, and it also shows a high success rate for the influenza vaccine. Even though
these are favorable statistics, some people still have doubts when it comes to mandatory
vaccination.
Those opposed to mandatory vaccination say that vaccines can lead to autism, vaccines
pose unnecessary risks to the child, and that mandating vaccines infringes on the rights of the
parents. First, autism has no correlation to vaccinations as stated in the Times article, Vaccines
Dont Cause Autism, Even In Kids at Higher Risk, by Alice Park. Park says, among the
95,000 children with older siblings included in the study, children who received the MMR and
had autistic older siblings were no more likely to develop autism than children who were
vaccinated and didnt have any autistic older siblings. In fact, the relative risk of autism among
those with older autistic brothers or sisters was lower if they were vaccinated compared to those
who were not vaccinated (Vaccines Dont Cause Autism). This shows that vaccinations,
contrary to some peoples belief, do not cause or make it more likely for a child to develop
autism. Second, vaccines do not put children at a higher risk of getting the disease, in fact it is
the opposite, Young children respond particularly well to the flu vaccine, and giving it to
preschoolers creates a ripple effect that diminishes the flu in the population as a whole
(Worland). This quote is significant because it shows that children are not negatively affected by
vaccines, and that vaccines actually help to diminish the possibility of an outbreak. JAMA

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Pediatrics also conducted a study pertaining to the safety of vaccines and found that the HPV
vaccine was safe after testing it on 190,000 women (Nancy). This is important because JAMA is
a well-respected medical journal and they found a certain vaccine to be safe. Finally, the most
controversial topic, parents rights. Should parents have the right to opt their child out of
vaccinations? According to John Meyer in his article, Mandatory Vaccinations Can Be
Compatible With Liberty, The harm of nonvaccination for serious communicable diseases
poses a significant enough risk for others to become infected that it justifies such small
impositions on personal liberty. A policy of voluntary vaccination, or the granting of
philosophical exceptions to the general vaccination requirement, causes much more potential
harm than requiring people to get a vaccination does (Meyer). In this article Meyer is saying
that sacrificing ones liberty to choose whether or not to get vaccinated is not as important as the
wellbeing of society as a whole.
In conclusion, vaccines should become mandatory in the United States because they
decrease the number of outbreaks of preventable disease, reduce healthcare costs and death rates,
and reduce or destroy diseases that haunted previous generations. Vaccines are an important
modern medical phenomenon and should be used and distributed all over the world. First things
first, we have to mandate immunization in our homeland. But in the coming years ahead I
believe that we should mandate vaccinations on a global scale.

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Works Cited
Print:
Ciolli, Anthony. Mandatory School Vaccinations: The Role of Tort Law. The Yale Journal of
Biology and Medicine 81.3 (2008): 129137. Print.
Hendriksz, Tami, Philip Malouf Joseph, Stella Sarmiento, and James Foy E. "Overcoming
Barriers to Immunization." AOA Health Watch (1994): 2. Oct. 2013. Print. 9 Sept. 2016.
Periodicals:
Park, Alice. "It's A Jab Or Your Job." Time 174.15 (2009): 55. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web.
18 Sept. 2016.
Park, Alice. "Vaccines Dont Cause Autism, Even In Kids At Higher Risk." Time.Com (2015):
N.PAG. Middle Search Plus. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.
Alter, Charlotte. "California Governor Jerry Brown Signs Mandatory Vaccine Law." Time.Com
(2015): N.PAG. Middle Search Plus. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Babcock, Hilary M., Nancy Gemeinhart, Marilyn Jones, Keith F. Woeltje, and W. Claiborne
Dunagan. "Mandatory Influenza Vaccination of Health Care Workers: Translating Policy
to Practice." Oxford Journals. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
Boghani, Priyanka. "Dr. Paul Offit: A Choice Not To Get a Vaccine Is Not a Risk-Free
Choice." KQED. N.p., 23 Mar. 2015. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
Worland, Justin. "Why Some Experts Want Mandatory Flu Shots For School Kids." Time.Com
(2015): N.PAG. Middle Search Plus. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Websites:
"Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child." Vaccines.gov. U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
Ryan, Kathleen A. "Target The Super-Spreaders." Scientific American 307.4 (2012): 14. MAS
Ultra - School Edition. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Smith, Philip J., Susan Chu Y., and Lawrence Barker E. "Children Who Have Received No
Vaccines: Who Are They and Where Do They Live?" AAP Gateway. American Academy
of Pediatrics, 2 Mar. 2004. Web. 8 Sept. 2016.

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Nancy, Beverly, and Ballarlo Sprague. "Debate On Vaccines And Health Hazards." Salem Press
Encyclopedia (2015): Topic Overviews 6-12. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.
Meyer, Randal John. "Mandatory Vaccinations Can Be Compatible With Liberty." Freeman:
Ideas On Liberty (2015): 2. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.