Roscoe 1

Pamela Roscoe
Mr. Davis
Government 4
October 25, 2015
School Vaccination Act of 2015
As parents, friends, babysitters or decent citizens, we want the best for the children of our
community. There is a vast amount of dangers in the world we live in today, and children are the
most susceptible to these problems that plague us. Though we may not be able to harness all of
the problems of the world, we have managed to ward off one of the invisible evils that have
killed millions: disease. Through the new medical technology of vaccinations, many previously
fatal diseases like polio and smallpox have been eradicated from todays society. However, some
individuals in todays society choose not to vaccinate their children due to religious or
philosophical reasons, putting everyone at risk. The School Vaccination Act of 2015 should be
passed because the lack of mandated vaccinations ruins the herd immunity concept of
vaccinations, school- aged children are more susceptible to have and spread diseases, and
vaccinations are very cost effective and beneficial to the economy.
One of the most important aspects of vaccination and its effects is herd immunity. Herd
immunity is the protection against many diseases because there is little opportunity for an
outbreak (Community Immunity). When the majority of the population is vaccinated, there is
little to no opportunity for diseases to have outbreaks, however, when people take advantage of
the government regulated exceptions, the whole concept of herd immunity loses its strength.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, The percentages of
vaccination coverage registered in the United States and Europe are not sufficient to establish
herd immunity. This means that at the moment, we are currently putting our population at risk
due to the low percentage of vaccinated individuals in the United States. In some areas, nearly
one out of five children has not received their recommended vaccines (Calandrillo). The

Roscoe 2
consequences of not being vaccinated are serious not only for those unprotected children, but for
the rest of society as well because everyone is reliant on each other. There have been several
different diseases eradicated by the use of vaccinations and herd immunity, such as polio and
small pox. Smallpox eradication eliminated the suffering of an estimated 10-15 million people a
year and saved the lives of 1.5 million people per year (Eradication of Infectious Diseases).
Without the use of vaccinations, millions of individuals would have to face the burden, disability
and death resulting from polio. These types of diseases are extremely contagious and the lack of
vaccinations would be the demise to todays society. An example of an attempted eradication of
a disease that failed due to individuals not vaccinations is the measles. In the Americas, spurred
on by the success of regional cessation of transmission of wild poliovirusAs a consequence,
transmission of measles virus was temporarily interrupted in the Americas on several occasions
but reestablished again by importation (Jamison 351). Just a few unvaccinated individuals can
wreck havoc on a nation-wide push to eradicate a highly infectious disease that has affected
millions throughout history.
Children spend the majority of their time together at school, touching and breathing the
same air and surroundings. Because of this, schools are breeding grounds of diseases due to their
close physical contact for extended periods of time, inadequate hygiene habits, and
underdeveloped immune systems place children attending childcare and special needs settings at
increased risk of infection (Control of Communicable). Due to this, there needs to be an extra
effort of caution towards protecting said children. Another study claims that, Children are
immunized early because they are susceptible to diseases at a young age, and the consequences
of these diseases can be very serious, and even life-threatening, for infants and young children
(Vaccines). When there are a few individuals who are not vaccinated and they contract a
disease, they put those most susceptible, children, at higher risks. With this said, an epidemic of

Roscoe 3
mumps once arose involving about 3,000 people and mostly affected high school-aged students
who were part of a close-knit religious community in New York City and attended schools in
which they had very close contact(Mumps Cases and). Everyone, including teenagers are
susceptible to infectious diseases when put close to each other. When the disease contractor is a
child as well, there are now two lives at stake, simply due to misinformation or refusal to
understand vaccinations.
The cost of treating the diseased rather than vaccinating individuals is substantially
higher. When there is someone who has a highly contagious disease, the cost for hospitalizing,
treatment and medication overthrows the cost of creating and testing vaccinations by a landslide.
[Diseases] come at a tremendous cost to society, for vaccine-preventable diseases impose $10
billion worth of healthcare costs and over 30,000 otherwise avoidable deaths in America each
year (Ciolli). Many parents are cost conscious-- having a child can be very costly, and
additional hospital bills are definitely not their first choice to where they were to empty their
wallets. Vaccinations serve as a quick and easy way to avoid high hospital bills due to their
effectiveness and cost efficiency. In addition to cost efficiency, vaccinations benefit the economy.
Pneumococcal and rotavirus diseases in the worlds 73 poorest countries over the next decade
would result in an estimated $63 billion in treatment and productivity savings (Value in
Inventing). By investing in the treatment of vaccinations throughout the world, the economy of
not only the United States but also the globe overall would benefit.
The debate of whether to vaccinate or not is very prevalent in todays society due to
skeptics questioning the validity of said vaccinations. Many claim that vaccinations are unsafe,
claiming that there will be detrimental effects towards those who are being vaccinated. However,
the process of creating vaccinations takes a long time in order to regulate the safety of each
individual vaccination.Vaccines typically take 10 to 15 years of research, development and

Roscoe 4
testing before being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and made
available to the public (The Facts Behind). There are numerous steps to the process of
developing a vaccination and it is all for the cause of safety. During these tests, FDA scientists
and medical professionals carefully evaluate a wide range of information including results of
studies on the vaccines physical, chemical, and biological properties, as well as how it is
manufactured, to ensure that it can be made consistently safe, pure, and potent (Ensuring the
Health). These healthcare professionals and scientists go out of their way to promise that the
vaccinations are safe for all. Another issue anti-vaccination individuals have regarding
vaccinations is that it causes autism. There have been numerous studies that have proven that
autism and vaccinations are not linked. For example, numerous studies have shown that, The
possibility that immunological stimulation from vaccines during the first 1 or 2 years of life
could be related to the development of autism spectrum disorder is not well-supported by what is
known about the neurobiology of ASDs (Autism Risk Unrelated). The studies blatantly state
that there is no correlation between autism and vaccinations, proving there to be no reason not to
vaccinate ones child.
Though it may be a painful initial prick, in the long run, vaccinations serve to benefit all.
The School Vaccination Act of 2015 should be passed because the lack of mandated vaccinations
ruins the herd immunity concept of vaccinations, school- aged children are more susceptible to
have and spread diseases, and vaccinations are very cost effective and beneficial to the economy.
By revoking religious and philosophical exceptions, the entire population would benefit. This is
no longer an issue of the individual but rather an issue of the whole. Through the actions of a
few, millions of people are negatively affected, whether it be directly as in contracting the illness
or indirectly by watching their loved ones suffer. To pass the School Vaccination Act 2015, tell
your loved ones how much they take their health for grated, as it is not guaranteed.

Roscoe 5

Works Cited
Web
"Autism Risk Unrelated to Total Vaccine Exposure in Early Childhood." NIMH RSS. N.p., n.d.
Web. 01 Nov. 2015. <http://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2013/autism-riskunrelated-to-total-vaccine-exposure-in-early-childhood.shtml>.
Ciolli, Anthony, Mandatory School Vaccinations: The Role of Tort Law, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Yale
University. September 2008. Web. October 18,2015
"Community Immunity ("Herd Immunity")." Community Immunity ("Herd Immunity"). N.p., n.d.
Web. 25 Oct. 2015. <http://www.vaccines.gov/basics/protection/index.html>.
"Ensuring the Safety of Vaccines in the United States." (n.d.): n. pag. Ensuring the Safety of
Vaccines in the United States. Food and Drug Administration. Web.
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/
UCM298181.pdf>.
"Eradication of Infectious Diseases." Eradication of Infectious Diseases. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Oct.
2015. <http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/t980520a.html>.

Roscoe 6
"Mumps Cases and Outbreaks." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 21 Sept. 2015. Web. 01 Nov. 2015.
http://www.cdc.gov/mumps/outbreaks.html
National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 25
Oct. 2015. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22414740>.
Vaccines. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/parent-questions.html>.
Value in Inventing in Vaccines. jhsph.edu. Johns Hopkins University. 2010. Web. October 18,
2015. http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/ivac/resources/vaccine-costeffectiveness.html
"The Facts Behind Vaccine Safety." The Facts Behind Vaccine Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov.
2015. <https://www.health.ny.gov/prevention/immunization/vaccine_safety/proof.htm>.
Periodical
"Control Of Communicable Diseases." The British Medical Journal 2.5203 (1960): 924. Web.

Book
Jamison, Dean T. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. New York: Oxford UP,
2006. Print.