By Rodin Batcheller

Addendum Editor

Around the same time each year influenza starts to be passed around from person to person, making flu season the unofficial fifth season of the year. With this season, comes the argument of whether children should be required by law to be vaccinated; and not just for the flu- chicken pox, Hepatitis A, HPV, a sexually transmitted infection, and countless others as well. The decision to have children vaccinated should not be left with the government, but with the families or caregivers of these children.

Vaccines have proven to help solve many diseases and medical epidemics over the years. However, there are still families and groups of people who believe that vaccines may be harmful or do not help at all and the decision should be left to them on whether or not to vaccinate their children.

“If the State can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biological products of known and unknown toxicity today,” Barbara Fisher, Co-founder of National Vaccine Information Center, stated, “There will be no limit on which individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.”

There are certain vaccines that contain ingredients, as listed by vaccines.gov, that some people may consider to be objectionable. Some vaccines for common vaccinations such as chicken pox and the flu are made using animal products like chicken eggs, bovine casein, insect cells, Cocker Spaniel cells, pig gelatin, and cells from African Green monkeys, making those vaccines conflict with some vegetarian and vegan philosophies. Others consider it problematic that some vaccines are produced using human albumin, a blood plasma protein due to fear of another human’s blood.

Making vaccines mandatory would impose upon constitutionally protected religious freedoms. Several religions oppose vaccines and mandatory vaccinations such as the Amish, who do not view all vaccinations as “necessary” and the Universal Family Church, which believes that parents should decide whether their children should be vaccinated.

The First Amendment of the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

In the ruling for Cantwell v. Connecticut, the US Supreme Court held that state and local governments’ infringement upon religious freedom is unconstitutional.

There is no reason to vaccinate against diseases that no longer occur in the United States. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported no cases or deaths from diphtheria between 2003 and 2011 in the United States. Fewer than 51 cases and 10 deaths per year from tetanus were reported between 1994 and 2011. Polio has been declared eradicated in the United States since 1979. There have been fewer than 21 deaths yearly from rubella since 1971 and fewer than 25 deaths yearly from mumps since 1968. No law mandating vaccinations is needed if there are but a few diseases left in this country.

The government should give families with children who have yet to be vaccinated the freedom to make their own choices. The state and federal governments should not make vaccines required by law

Vaccines have been controversial since they have come into existence and will continue to be for years to come. Although science has proven that vaccines can be helpful and productive, there are certain groups that will always view them as counterproductive or against their beliefs and that is something science cannot change.