Offit argues that the impact of parents who choose not to vaccinate their children not only affects their own children, it also affects those who come in contact with their children, including those that are too young to be vaccinated and those who cannot be vaccinated, who depend on those around them to be protected.
He asks: What is more important? The freedom of making bad health decisions or the community's right of protecting themselves from these decisions?
He states that mandatory vaccination in the U.S. has definitely resulted in higher vaccination numbers. The US did not suffer a measles epidemic, unlike Europe and the UK after claims that MMR vaccine was associated with autism, and in 2011, the majority of the 200 measles cases in the US were associated with European travel.
Offit concludes saying:
"Someday we may live in a world that doesn't scare patients into making bad health decisions. Until then, vaccine mandates are the best way to ensure protection from illnesses that have caused so much needless suffering and death."
However, David Salisbury, Director of Immunization at the UK Department of Health, argues that different approaches can be made to ensure high uptake.
He underlines the fact that the peak age for measles in England and Wales was below the age of five years between 1998 and 2010. This means that children would already be infected by the time they would receive their vaccination, if it were made compulsory at school entry.
According to Salisbury, the number of vaccinations can be increased through improved immunization services and puts forward the argument that even after the MMR scare, compulsory vaccination "was never considered" and "would probably have made matters much worse."
He also refers to the fact that exemptions for mandatory vaccination for school entry can be as much as 20% in the UK, and the rate continues to increase.
Salibury concludes:
"When coverage is already high and rising, target diseases are under excellent control (although measles could be better), and parental acceptance for immunization is high, compulsion seems a heavy hammer. Compulsion would be unenforceable, unnecessary, and its use would probably do more harm than good."
Written By Petra Rattue