![\"Figure](\"http:\/\/schoolpress.cdn.whipplehill.net\/gcschool648\/4\/files\/2015\/02\/Figure1_InfographicHerdImmunity.png\")
<\/a>However, I have been unfair to the other side of this debate by not telling their side of the story, even though it\u2019s wrong and hurting our nation\u2019s economy. Mercola.com is a popular website amongst anti-vaccine folks, and one of their stories actually proves my point. Dr. Mercola argued that 81 percent of 2010 California B. pertussis whooping cough cases in people under the age of 18 occurred in those who were fully up to date on the whooping cough vaccine. He then goes on to argue that the vaccine that covers whooping cough loses much of its effectiveness after just three years, has missed another strain of the same disease, and cause brain inflammation in small children. Note, vaccines do not actually cause brain inflammation. But Mercola does an interesting thing in his article. He points out that CDC data showed that 84 percent of children under the age of 3 had received at least four DTaP shots, DTaP being the vaccine in question, and he goes on to say, \u201cyet, despite this high vaccination rate, whooping cough still keeps circulating among both the vaccinated and unvaccinated.\u201d The herd immunity threshold that a community has to reach for whooping cough not to have a field day is actually 92-94 percent. The community, and I quote from Mercola himself, had an immunization rate of \u201c84 percent.\u201d It didn\u2019t matter that 84% of children had the vaccine, but because the immunization rate was not at 92 or 94 percent, even children who did the right thing ended up with the worst cough in human history, and since vaccines are also medicine, the misapplication of the vaccine could allow the virus to evolve into that new strain Mercola said the vaccine missed, which means because of 8% of parents, our society might get a big surprise from Mother Nature. Once again, more proof that a few in society are affecting public health in a negative way.<\/p>\n
But why do these chosen few decide to skip out on the vaccine if they don\u2019t claim sickness or religion to be their motivation. The short answer is misinformation, but you may know it as autism. Autism is a real condition that affects many lives, but some people think vaccines can cause autism. No, vaccines do not cause autism, and there have been thousands of pages wasted proving that vaccines do not cause autism. The journal that released the original study that said otherwise retracted their own story as unscientific. And yet people like Jenny McCarthy (a celebrity spokesperson for this misinformation) and Joseph Mercola continue to tell whoever will listen, including scared expecting couples, that vaccines cause autism and brain inflammation when really they keep their child from choking from diphtheria. And at the center of it all, it\u2019s really Big Pharma\u2019s fault for making bad vaccines and government\u2019s fault for not regulating them. Hey, here\u2019s a thought, the bosses of \u2018Big Pharma\u2019 are going to use the product they\u2019re selling. It\u2019s one of those rare cases where the supposed snake oil person drinks his own snake oil and doesn\u2019t die. They\u2019re not going to make a bad vaccine, because they themselves don\u2019t want to see themselves dead on the doctor\u2019s table, and the same probably goes for their children. You are essentially accusing them of murder-suicide. Worst case scenario, they don\u2019t take the drugs they make, but they know at some point they will take their own vaccine. I trust their life in their hands.
\nBut I feel that I cannot prove my case to the government without math. Math helps make things seem real enough to take action on it. Take the average American city, with a population of 20,000. Now, let\u2019s say there is an outbreak of whooping cough in the district, and the town needs to be vaccinated. Remember the point Mercola helped bring up: 92% of the population needs to get the vaccine or everyone suffers. The national immunodeficiency rate is .01592% so in the average town, there\u2019s that much of a chance that one won\u2019t be able to take the vaccine because of medical concerns. Say this is a new vaccine, and it contains porcine, and the religious community isn\u2019t comfortable with that. 1.2% of Americans adhere to Jewish tradition, and .8% Islam, which are both major religions that forbid the consumption of pork. To apply this to our imaginary town, 2% of citizens won\u2019t take the vaccine. All the rest of those 19600 citizens will take the vaccine. And that is still okay. 98% of people is above even the upper community immunity threshold of 94% for whooping cough. These means that even if the government were to pass legislation like I suggest that is wary of the Constitution, the law would still work, even for whooping cough with a threshold of 94%. But, as Mercola and the CDC pointed out, that number is much more likely to be 84% because some fear that it will cause autism or brain inflammation, both incorrect. Because they believe this misinformation, they decide to drop out of taking the vaccine. Because 14%, or 2800 people, decide to opt out, the community is no longer under community immunity, those 2800 people have robbed the entire community of their immunity to the whooping cough, including the 400 people who before were protected by the community\u2019s overall immunity but now must suffer. If allowing a certain few to force everyone to get sick isn\u2019t a gross violation of utilitarianism, I don\u2019t know what is. This miserable calculation shows definably the effect of misinformation, and thus only solidifies my point that vaccines should be mandated, and it would be ethical to do so.
\nIn conclusion, it is ethical and necessary for the government to mandate the use of vaccines with only religious and medical exceptions. Now, I do not enjoy my recommendation of this. I still hate needles, and in the moment, some distant disease can seem Greek to me. But that\u2019s how you know vaccines are doing their job. If you\u2019re being vaccinated against a disease that never occurred in your area in the past fifty years, chances are the doctor is sticking the last nail of that virus\u2019 coffin into your skin. And while the experience for some will be no less unpleasant, I hope that I have proven that vaccines still serve a valuable purpose in our world, and that opting out is akin to running over your neighbor, or rather, your entire neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Works Cited
\nCDC Emergency Risk Communication Branch. (2009, March 13). Questions and Answers About Smallpox Disease. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.bt.cdc.gov\/agent\/smallpox\/faq\/smallpox_disease.asp
\nCenters for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013, April 17). Injury Prevention & Control: Motor Vehicle Safety. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov\/mototvehiclesafety\/impaired_driving\/impaired-drv_factsheet.html
\nCox, W. (2008, September 10). America is More Small Town That we Think. Retrieved from newgeography: http:\/\/www.newgeography.com\/content\/00242-america-more-small-town-we-think
\nImmune Deficiency Foundation. (1995). PRIMARY IMMUNE DEFICIENCY DISEASES IN AMERICA. Retrieved from Primary Immune: http:\/\/primaryimmune.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Primary-Immune-Deficiency-Diseases-in-America-The-First-National-Survey-of-Patients-and-Specialists-1995.pdf
\nLopez, G. (2014, May 24). Everything you need to know about vaccines. Retrieved from Vox: http:\/\/www.vox.com\/cards\/vaccines\/what-happens-when-some-people-dont-get-vaccinated
\nMercola, J. (2012, April 17). Big Surprise – Whooping Cough Spreads Mainly through Vaccinated Populations. Retrieved from Mercola: http:\/\/articles.mercola.com\/sites\/articles\/archive\/2012\/04\/17\/pertussis-vaccine-for-whooping-cough-effects.aspx
\nNatonal Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (2010, October 21). Community Immunity (“Herd” Immunity). Retrieved from Natonal Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: www.niaid.nih.gov\/topic\/pages\/communityimmunity.aspx
\nSaad, L. (2012, August 17). Majority in U.S. Drink Alcohol, Averaging Four Drinks a Week. Retrieved from Gallup: http:\/\/www.gallup.com\/poll\/156770\/majority-drink-alcohol-averaging-four-drinks-week.aspx
\nShute, N. (2011, August 25). Report: Vaccines Are Safe, Hazards Few and Far Between. Retrieved from National Public Radio: www.npr.org\/blogs\/health\/2011\/08\/25\/139947193\/report-vaccines-are-safe-hazards-few-and-far-between
\nWikipedia. (2014, May 26). Herd Immunity. Retrieved from Wikipedia: en.wikipdia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Herd_immunity
\nWikipedia. (2014, September 8). Religion in the United States. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Religion_in_the_United_States<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"