Herd Immunity, The Big Myth

Herd immunity exists when the maximum amount of people are vaccinated, reducing the risk of infection for people at serious risk (i.e. immunocompromised adults, chemotherapy patients, or newborns). When fewer people are unvaccinated, a disease has fewer hosts to spread to. At this point, most states allow vaccination exemption for religious or “moral” conflicts in addition to medical reasons. People who exempt vaccines

A Massachusetts law allowed cities to require residents to be vaccinated against smallpox. The State enforced the law with a couple expectation already in place. Jacobson refused to comply with the requirement and was fined five dollars. This case raised questions about the power of state government to take specific action to protect the public’s health and the Constitution’s protection of personal liberty. It restarted the argument of what should be the limit to the states power. What does constitutionally protected liberty include?

Along the same idea, the justices also stated that the rights of the people are only applicable when they go along with the common good. Jacobson was attempting to exercise his rights that could have led to potential harm to others. The Court also stated in the ruling that the common good “applies to the right of society to protect itself from epidemics and that legislative bodies have authority to choose the means toward that end” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). The final statement in the ruling of Jacobson v. Massachusetts was that the police power had to adhere to four standards to determine if the 14th amendment is void when it comes to the good of public health. First, the issue, which in this case was vaccination, has to be a necessary measure to aid officials in stopping a disease outbreak. Second, the issue has to be reasonable and lead to desirable results. The third standard is whatever the public health officials propose, the benefit must outweigh the hassle to citizens. And finally, the issue should follow the ethical principle of nonmaleficence and should not cause harm to anyone.

The most dangerous diseases of our nation have been streaked out by widespread protection or immunity. This widespread protection has been the effect of an immense vaccination which is also called an immunization that introduces vaccines into the body. In this textbook, it mentions that a vaccine is “a preparation of killed, inactivated, or attenuated microorganisms or toxoids to induce artificially acquired active immunity.” (Tortora 487). Like anything else, there are many individuals who disagree with the common immunity or vaccination in general. These people base themselves off weak and false studies, which they then take and go further to spread their bias misled beliefs. These individuals do all of this without looking at the history,

This new vaccine would drastically change the way people battle against infections and reduce the number of people that get sick. Even in the 1950’s vaccines were already making an impact on society.

Mandatory vaccinations have been hotly debated in the United States for over two centuries, making the argument almost as old as the country itself. As early as 1809, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate the world’s premiere vaccine. Authorities recognized the life-saving benefits of the smallpox vaccine. They chose to require inoculation to protect the community from further outbreaks. Public outrage ensued as some community members feared the new vaccine and believed they should be able to choose if they wished to receive it. The most vocal protestors formed anti-compulsory vaccination groups and were successful in getting laws overturned in many states. However, even the United States Supreme Court has upheld states’ rights to require immunization. (A) Vaccinations should be

Herd immunity is essential in a community where people are unable to be vaccinated. The greater the quantity of people that are immune to a disease, the lower the chance of someone who is vulnerable contracting said disease. Whooping cough is an excellent example of a vaccine that strongly relies on herd immunity. With whooping cough, babies are particularly at risk of infection, therefore it is essential that immediate family members such as the; mother, father and grandparents are all immunised before coming into contact with the

Those who cannot be vaccinated or for whom vaccines are not effective rely on the concept of “herd immunity” to protect themselves; it is a social responsibility to get vaccinated in order to protect the rest of the population. There are many people in Canada who are completely unable to be vaccinated– people without a fully-functioning immune system, people undergoing chemotherapy treatment, people with HIV, newborn babies, and the elderly. However, when a certain portion of a community is immunized against a contagious disease, the other members of the community are protected against that disease because of “herd immunity”– if 95% of the population is vaccinated, the disease cannot spread

In the 1850s the first school vaccination requirement were enacted to prevent smallpox. Federal and state efforts to eradicate measles in the 1960s and 1970s motivated many to mandate policies. By the 1990s, all 50 states requirement for children to be enrolled in school must receive certain immunizations and if these requirements were not met than children were not allowed to be enrolled in school (Center for Disease Control Prevention, 2010). For example, in the state of California, private public school or daycare cannot admit children unless vaccinations were received for all ten of the diseases. If the California Department of Public Health implements a requirement for vaccination parent can be allowed to obtain personal belief exemptions that would allow parents to opt out of vaccination for their children if form is filled out by healthcare professional that states vaccinations were countered to personal beliefs. This law has not been implemented as of yet but should be in 2016. The healthcare of policy decision in laws can have an influence on individuals based on the decision that are made. Health care policy and issues can affect providers and patients in many different ways. Stakeholders’ in the policymakers for vaccination main concern is the safety and health of children so the implement exemptions of laws from concern about vaccine

The “herd” community is another word for a number of people in a community. The word “herd” is used because in a herd has many people just like a community does. A chain of a certain disease can break if the next person the disease reaches is vaccinated. The higher the number of people that are getting vaccinated more disease chains are likely to break. The necessary percent of vaccinations need to prevent a disease outbreak is 70-100% (Netzley 56). This also protects people who cannot get vaccinated. People can’t get vaccinated if they have poor health, their age, or going through chemotherapy. The “herd” community can help these people by reaching the 70-100% vaccination rate, and there is a less chance of having a disease outbreak; therefore, the disease chain can break before it reaches the people who cannot get vaccinated. In 2005, a little girl contracted the polio disease; she then spread the disease to four other children. The community that the little girl was in reached the 70-100% vaccination rate, and there was never any outbreak of polio (“Should Vaccinations be” 2017). People can die from certain diseases every year, but if the community around a person who cannot get vaccinated is vaccinated then those people could save that person's life.

originate from a medical professionals mishandling of a study. This impacts the reputation of the whole medical community. Discovering

Jenner. His experiments were extremely primal, however, and from that point on the vaccine production rate and quality rose exponentially. In 1809 the first United States law requiring vaccinations for smallpox was written after frequent outbreaks created great health and economic consequences.(Omer, 2011, 169-182). Before vaccines for children were created children died by the thousands from disease like in the 1920’s when diphtheria used to take on average 10,000 lives of children every year. The first vaccine as we have come to know them today emerged in 1914 with the first pertussis or whooping cough vaccine. This was followed by several Supreme Court decisions cementing a states right to create vaccination and school immunization laws regarding unvaccinated children and their ability to attend public and private schools. These decisions included the Jacobson v. Massachusetts decision of 1905 and a 1922 decision on a San Antonio, Texas case about a girl excluded from both public and private schools due to her lack of vaccination. Social call for change in the 1970’s called for the exclusion of unvaccinated children from schools to create quick improvement and controlled outbreak of a measles virus running rampant in the country. Thus after much legislative and social change on the subject of unvaccinated children’s exposure to

When children who have been vaccinated do contract a disease, despite being vaccinated against it, they usually have milder symptoms with less serious complications than an un-vaccinated child that gets the same disease. It is true that some children who receive vaccinations may still become ill when exposed to other disease-ridden children. Research shows that 70-90% of the entire population must be vaccinated to attain “herd immunity”, “the resistance of a group to attack by a disease to which a large proportion of the members are immune.” (Farlex, 2012) When herd immunity is accomplished the spread of the disease can be averted throughout. If all parents were to take proper responsibilities and keep their children’s immunizations up-to-date, herd immunity would be achieved against all 16 of the major life threatening diseases.

To fully understand the argument for mandated vaccinations, it is important to understand how different States define the word, “mandate,” and the Supreme Court’s reasoning behind upholding vaccination laws. Many would associate the word “mandate” with an order or command, or something that signifies requirement or inexcusableness, but States’

In contrast, a positive aspect of many people having vaccinations is herd immunity. Herd immunity is the occurrence where a large proportion of a specific population is vaccinated to provide them immunity, and as a result, it also gives some protection to the people of the population who have and yet developed immunity. This happens as the a large group of vaccinated individuals are protected from a virus and creates difficulty for the it to spread because there is only a small percentage of the population left that could be infected by the disease. It is a very crucial aspect of immunity for the community as the people who cannot receive vaccinations (i.e. people with weak immune systems, very young children and patients who are too ill)