Vaccines Pros Cons

Sierra Neill

Professor Rivera

English 1A

March 14, 2017

The Various Viewpoints on Vaccines

During the decades before vaccines were invented people died from diseases that spread throughout the land. These common diseases, at the time, would wipe out thousands of people. Once the vaccines came around, during the late 1700s, it helped build peoples immune system, and the rate of deaths dropped tremendously. Now, in 2017 more vaccines have been created to further benefit people from becoming ill. These vaccines are mandatory for children to attend public school, that way they can control the virus from becoming immune to the vaccine. However, a group of people believe it should be ones choice whether the children should have the
These vaccines continue to grow as the years went by. The government had made the vaccinations mandatory in 1905. The, “U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Jacobson vs. Massachusetts upheld the constitutionality of mandatory small pox vaccination programs to preserve the public health” (History). This law required everyone to take the vaccine to stop the virus from further infecting people. If anyone rejected it they would be fined. However, this violated the 14th amendment. A minister named Henning Jacobson made sure to claim that in 1902. This was then rebuttled when “Harlan wrote in his opinion for the court, “’the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under pressure of great dangers, be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand”’ (article). In other words, because the small pox virus was an epidemic and would have killed a majority more, the Government took it upon themselves to keep the entire society
This was the anti-vaccination group. This group was founded in 1879. According to the article “History of Anti-vaccination Movements”, “The American anti-vaccination waged court battles to repeal vaccination laws in several states including California, Illinois and Wisconsin” (timeline). This took place during the late 1800s. This was only the beginning of the long drawn out battle between the two opponents. The court believed that they had to do what was necessary to protect the people. The anti-vaccination group believed it should be their own choice. After a few centuries went by, scientist started treating vaccinations as the “holy grail” stated in the article, “Vaccination: Defending Your Right to Know and Freedom to Choose”, that, “In the 21st century, if you refuse to believe that vaccination is a moral and civic duty and dare to question vaccine safety or advocate for the legal right to decline one or more government recommended vaccines, you are in danger of being branded an anti-science heretic, a traitor and a threat to the public health”(vaccinations). It seems as though people will never see eye to eye on this