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Should The Government Mandate Childhood Immunizations?

Should The Government Mandate Childhood Immunizations?

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X Factor

X Factor

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Michele Bachman's gotten some press lately (for whatever reason) and it reminded me of how she went after Rick Perry for trying to require that HPV shot in Texas. I think this raises an interesting question. I don't have kids so I don't know if it already a law that you get your kids their shots or not, but should this be something the government should require, you as a parent, to have done? I see cogent arguments both ways. What do you think?

Preparing the poll now. "Yes", "no" and "maybe/don't know" will be the choices.
 
With 300+ million people and the low level of intelligence....yes. It's a shame really but reality trumps fantasies of "freedom".




X Factor said:
Michele Bachman's gotten some press lately (for whatever reason) and it reminded me of how she went after Rick Perry for trying to require that HPV shot in Texas. I think this raises an interesting question. I don't have kids so I don't know if it already a law that you get your kids their shots or not, but should this be something the government should require, you as a parent, to have done? I see cogent arguments both ways. What do you think?

Preparing the poll now. "Yes", "no" and "maybe/don't know" will be the choices.
Click to expand...
 
i'm pretty ok with requiring immunizations to attend school. herd immunity only goes so far. also, if you work in health care, you have to be up to date on your vaccines.
 
X Factor said:
Michele Bachman's gotten some press lately (for whatever reason) and it reminded me of how she went after Rick Perry for trying to require that HPV shot in Texas. I think this raises an interesting question. I don't have kids so I don't know if it already a law that you get your kids their shots or not, but should this be something the government should require, you as a parent, to have done? I see cogent arguments both ways. What do you think?

Preparing the poll now. "Yes", "no" and "maybe/don't know" will be the choices.
Click to expand...

For serious diseases, I think vaccines should be required in order to get into school...no exceptions on religious grounds, moral grounds or for any reason other than solid medical ones. You don't want your kids to have these vaccines? Home school 'em.
 
There is only one logical answer, absolutely yes.

Watch, and learn. You can find the whole episode on YT if you want.

 
To be honest I've never really thought about it, but my first instinct is yes, at least for serious diseases as Maggie said. Generally the place I'm most willing to allow requirements are when they relate to the children. Especially to attend school I think, because that puts other parents' children at risk as well.
 
What was absolutely stupid about what Bachmann said wasn't the fact that she had an issue against mandated immunizations - I understand why someone might be against that. What she did however during the debates was make up a bunch of bull**** and said things about the HPV vaccine that were patently false. Specifically she said that the HPV vaccine can lead to health problems and mental retardation, which simply isn't the case. She has a track record of making up complete bull**** to buttress her already ****ty arguments, like suggesting that the Lion King is gay propaganda.
 
Helix said:
i'm pretty ok with requiring immunizations to attend school.
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I'm still thinking about the overall question but I do agree that if you're going to use public education, the government, through the school system can dictate what's required before your children can attend.
 
I think there is a fine line between what they should and what they shouldn't "mandate". If an individual is going to be working in the public sector then there should be a requirement to have basic immunizations, nothing overly extravagant. On top of that if an individual is going to take advantage of the public schooling systems that receive federal money, or any other governmental assistance or services the same basic immunizations should be required. But if somebody is going to fend totally for themselves by all means the government shouldn't be able to require anything of the sort.
 
iacardsfan said:
I think there is a fine line between what they should and what they shouldn't "mandate". If an individual is going to be working in the public sector then there should be a requirement to have basic immunizations, nothing overly extravagant. On top of that if an individual is going to take advantage of the public schooling systems that receive federal money, or any other governmental assistance or services the same basic immunizations should be required. But if somebody is going to fend totally for themselves by all means the government shouldn't be able to require anything of the sort.
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But the argument isn't just that they need these immunizations if they want to engage in certain public services like education, it's that their decision not to immunize in and of itself puts others at risk by increasing the risk of infection and allowing the disease to reemerge in a community that had previously eradicated it as a result of mass vaccination. This can and has happened especially with a variety of childhood ailements that have made a minor come back as a result of vaccination hysteria among parents that was cultivated in the 80's and 90's.
 
Sherman123 said:
But the argument isn't just that they need these immunizations if they want to engage in certain public services like education, it's that their decision not to immunize in and of itself puts others at risk by increasing the risk of infection and allowing the disease to reemerge in a community that had previously eradicated it as a result of mass vaccination. This can and has happened especially with a variety of childhood ailements that have made a minor come back as a result of vaccination hysteria among parents that was cultivated in the 80's and 90's.
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Well, then any parent concerned about those risks could still get their kids the shots, and I'm sure that's what most parents would do. Isn't this one of those things parents should get to decide?
 
X Factor said:
Well, then any parent concerned about those risks could still get their kids the shots, and I'm sure that's what most parents would do. Isn't this one of those things parents should get to decide?
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Part of the problem is when parents become convinced that vaccines aren't a positive thing, or that they can change the regiment and cycle--it kills people. It's a situation where quite frankly no a parent does not know best. A solid example is the big measles outbreak we had from about 1987-1992 which resulted in around 60,000 infections and something like 150 deaths. This was a disease that was previously eradicated in our country but and an upsurge after the anti-vaccination hysteria which allowed the disease to gain a foothold and weakened our herd immunity which resulted in younger children and those who could not be vaccinated to be very vulnerable to infection. After we tightened restrictions and increased burdens for those who avoided vaccinations the incidence rate plummeted and we've only had a few hundred cases in the past 20 years.

The other argument that is often brought up is whether parents should have the moral right to needlessly expose their children to disease.
 
No. I don't really mind if people immunize their children or they decide not to and I don't think the government should concern themselves with it either.
 
If parents don't want to immunize their kids,I feel that is their right...Just keep those lil' plague carriers away from my grandbabies.:lol:
 
Maybe there should be more choices?

For instance, how about not making the immunizations mandatory, but allowing people to be charged with creating a public health threat if their immunized child contracts a disease they could have had shots for?
 
...In its zeal to identify bin Laden or his family, the CIA used a sham hepatitis B vaccination project to collect DNA in the neighborhood where he was hiding...

...The deadly consequences have already begun. Villagers along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border chased off legitimate vaccine workers, accusing them of being spies. Taliban commanders banned polio vaccinations in parts of Pakistan, specifically citing the bin Laden ruse as justification. Then, last December, nine vaccine workers were murdered in Pakistan, eventually prompting the United Nations to withdraw its vaccination teams. Two months later gunmen killed 10 polio workers in Nigeria—a sign that the violence against vaccinators may be spreading...

How the CIA’s Fake Vaccination Campaign Endangers Us All
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Something to think about.
 
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I think requiring it to attend school is a good compromise. That way enough children are vaccinated that herd immunity can work. And at the same time you aren't throwing parents in jail.
 
It depends on the severity of the disease being vaccinated against. If something like small pox appeared, I would support mandatory vaccinations for every single living human who even sets foot on U.S. soil with no exceptions and serious penalties for failure to comply. The lesser the disease, the lesser the requirement to be vaccinated (like a mandate for school children) until the ailment is minor enough (or the vaccine ineffective enough) it shouldn't be a requirement.
 
X Factor said:
Michele Bachman's gotten some press lately (for whatever reason) and it reminded me of how she went after Rick Perry for trying to require that HPV shot in Texas. I think this raises an interesting question. I don't have kids so I don't know if it already a law that you get your kids their shots or not, but should this be something the government should require, you as a parent, to have done? I see cogent arguments both ways. What do you think?

Preparing the poll now. "Yes", "no" and "maybe/don't know" will be the choices.
Click to expand...

The government already does via the schools. If you want to send your child to a public school then they must be immunized or they will not be let in.

That said, no, the government should not be forcing people to take medicine of any kind.
 
specklebang said:
With 300+ million people and the low level of intelligence....yes. It's a shame really but reality trumps fantasies of "freedom".
Click to expand...
I agree. That's why every liberal on this planet should be admitted to a European mental institution for psychiatric observation.
 
The government shouldn't have to mandate immunizations, but unfortunately we have turned "I have the right to be wrong" into a mantra in this country. There is absolutely no reason not to protect your kids' health and the health of the community by using the best modern technology to combat disease. If government mandate is the only way to make this actually happen, then I guess that's what we'll have to do.

The only liberty argument at stake here is really the liberty to be a bad parent. And we really shouldn't be going so far out of our way to protect bad parents.
 
Henrin said:
No. I don't really mind if people immunize their children or they decide not to and I don't think the government should concern themselves with it either.
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I give you huge kudos for being consistent, but I have no desire to regress back to the middle ages where we're constantly fighting small pox and whooping cough, etc., either.
 
Paschendale said:
The government shouldn't have to mandate immunizations, but unfortunately we have turned "I have the right to be wrong" into a mantra in this country. There is absolutely no reason not to protect your kids' health and the health of the community by using the best modern technology to combat disease. If government mandate is the only way to make this actually happen, then I guess that's what we'll have to do.

The only liberty argument at stake here is really the liberty to be a bad parent. And we really shouldn't be going so far out of our way to protect bad parents.
Click to expand...

I would phrase it as, "I have the right to be naive and ignorant."

I have heard people say, "Why should I immunize my kid against whooping cough? I've never known a person my entire life who has had whooping cough."

:doh Connect the dots, bozo.
 
X Factor said:
Well, then any parent concerned about those risks could still get their kids the shots, and I'm sure that's what most parents would do. Isn't this one of those things parents should get to decide?
Click to expand...

Mandated vaccinations should continue to be required for public schools... measles, DPT, polio and smallpox. The problem is that parents either homeschool or use private schools, which allows unvaccinated children to mingle in the community as a whole, infecting babies and small children too young to be immunized. I posted this somewhere else, but measles is nothing to fool with. I nearly died with it when I was a kid. Right now, there is a resurgence of Whooping Cough to epic proportions in CAlifornia. In this state alone, 24 babies died of whooping cough, which was almost completely eradicated by the 1980's. This is the result of reckless parents who refuse to immunize their own children, who then infect other children too young for vaccination in the supermarket, at the park, anywhere they are allowed to mingle.

So in my mind, it goes far beyond public schools. Babies are dying because parents are refusing to vaccinate their children.

BTW, if I had young daughters now, with an HPV vaccine available that will lower their potential of developing uterine cancer as adults (and potentially transmitted the cancer-causing virus to their significant others), I'd have them vaccinated prior to puberty in a heartbeat.
 
X Factor said:
Michele Bachman's gotten some press lately (for whatever reason) and it reminded me of how she went after Rick Perry for trying to require that HPV shot in Texas. I think this raises an interesting question. I don't have kids so I don't know if it already a law that you get your kids their shots or not, but should this be something the government should require, you as a parent, to have done? I see cogent arguments both ways. What do you think?

Preparing the poll now. "Yes", "no" and "maybe/don't know" will be the choices.
Click to expand...
Part of the answer would depend on whether the vaccination was for an infectious disease that threatens public health. This has been a debate since colonial times, so just for fun: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/v....eWU#search="american colonial laws smallpox"
 
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