Personal freedom versus public good. It is a debate that has no end and is ultimately usually left up to lawmakers to resolve. For the most part, laws for the common good are fairly benign – traffic regulations and smoking bans in public places, for example. Others, however, cause instant controversy and result in visceral public protest.
Take for example the recent decision by the State of California to eliminate all exemptions to its mandatory public school vaccination legislation. The new law eliminates parents’ ability to exempt their children from vaccinations before they can attend classes, regardless of religious or personal beliefs – medical exemptions will still be allowed.
While all states, according to the Centre for Disease Control, have mandatory vaccination laws for school attendance, California is the first to do away with personal exemptions of any kind. Some are calling the law – the strictest in North America – a trampling of basic rights and freedoms. Others are heralding it as a necessary and prudent step to protect public health.
Here in Canada, only two provinces – Ontario and New Brunswick – have mandatory vaccination laws and both allow for exemptions. Up until 2014, Manitoba required school children to be vaccinated for measles prior to attending classes.
The Canadian Medical Association made waves last month following its annual general council meeting. Doctors, in an effort to increase public education on vaccinations, passed a resolution asking provinces to require parents to submit their children’s vaccination records to school districts upon registration. While the association fell short of calling for mandatory vaccination laws, its resolution would allow schools to know which students are not vaccinated and actively engage their parents with education on the benefits of vaccinations.
Cindy Forbes, the medical association’s president, said doctors did not want to talk about making vaccinations mandatory for fear of inflaming the argument, which would be counterproductive to the end goal.
While she might be right in her perspective, this is a clear a case where the public good outweighs our right to choose.
There are still people around today who remember the devastating effects of diseases such as polio on children. Disability and death were not uncommon across Canada before the vaccine was administered. The results speak for themselves. Between 1955 – when vaccination began – and 1967, cases of paralytic polio in Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, the Soviet Union and Western Europe dropped by 99 per cent – 1,013 case from more than 76,000. It is now considered eradicated in North America
In recent years, outbreaks of diseases such as measles and whooping cough – the most recent in Northern Alberta – are putting the spotlight on vaccination rates and a decline in herd immunity.
While there has become an increase in anti-vaccination sentiment – much of it spurred by celebrities who need a reason to keep attention focused on them – the truth is the efficacy of vaccinations is scientifically proven. The arguments against vaccinations amount to nothing more than debunked scientific claims and superstition.
It is time to put a stop to the rhetoric and implement mandatory vaccination laws for students who attend public schools. Those who refuse can start private schools or home school. Some laws, although not popular, are for the greater good. Better that than dusting off the iron lungs.
