Hello Steemians! We are back with the second topic for discussion:
Should vaccinations be mandatory? Or should we be free to choose for our own selves and our own children?
Choosing for oneself and opting to take risks is easy. Not wearing a helmet while driving can get you killed. On the other hand, being drunk while driving can get other people killed, who have not chosen to take this risk.
Something similar happens with vaccines. If not enough people are vaccinated, infectious diseases can spread, through school, workplaces or other public places. Furthermore, the more unvaccinated people there are, the easiest it is for a disease to spread. What happens if unvaccinated people get sick and can’t afford the treatment? Should the rest of the community pay for their choices through their contribution to public healthcare?
Many immunization refusals are due to misinformation about the health benefits and risks of vaccination. Others, are just due to people forgetting appointments and simply not paying enough attention to their importance. Perhaps integrating the subject into the educational curriculum and offering easy accessibility, information and reminders will be enough, without having to make it compulsory for all members of a community. If most members vaccinate, herd immunity will be achieved anyway, and diseases will be very hard to spread.
What is your own opinion on the matter? Write your opinion in the comment section below, and don’t forget to upvote the post so that more people can see it. The commenter with the most engagement and/or thoughtful comment will get rewarded with 25% of the Steem dollars the post generates. The creators are excluded. We kindly ask you not to use flagging if you disagree with someone. Use thoughtful counter-arguments instead. Also, please do not copy directly from sources on the internet. Use your own words. Your opinion matters!
The winner of our first post is @rocking-dave, for his strong engagement and thoughtful comments. He will receive 25% of the $32.82 we received as authors, which is $8.205. We would also like to thank @chieppa1 for his smart insights, as well as @shanequick, @leprechaun, @mattclarke, @greer184, @siddartha, @stanthesteemer, and all other commenters who contributed to the debate.
This is plain over reach like the case that UK NHS stop a child from being transfered to US for a new treatment that can potentially save his life. The parents should have the right to say no if they choose. There is always risk and if anyone read the fine print there is no guarantee (ie the in your face "individual results may vary" line). If big pharma / big gov can't prove or at least provide some form of guarantee of no ill effect let alone the desired effect can be achieved, it is ethically wrong to force it on people.
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This is a totally different sceneriao. Here this poses a great risk to only the child's life, but with vaccination it places many lives at risk
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Your point very valid. However I do see that with each small step (and big pharma lobbying propaganda) people will be striped their freedom of choice on this matter.
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meep
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My usual answer, for all sorts of these debates, is to defer to the property owner.
You own yourself, so you should choose what is/isn't injected into your body.
The owner of each school, workplace, park, etc, should decide whether or not to allow or bar vaccinated/non vaccinated people from that place.
Having public (unowned) places is the problem here.
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If you want to use that logic,know that Children are considered property of the state in most countries, as a parent if you are not doing your duty, the state can relieve you of your child
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I'm not sure that's a fair assessment. The fact that children's rights are protected by the state doesn't mean that the state can claim any form of ownership. Remember, custody is not ownership. If the body of a child has a rightful owner, it's the child themselves. If they are not old enough to exercise some rights or to make a particular type of decisions, they get a guardian with legal custody, but not an owner.
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States and countries don't exist.
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First; to pose the question whether vaccinations should be mandatory is only really relevant in areas where "undervaccination" is a problem because people are refusing (voluntary) vaccination. Remember that in the developed world this is a fairly recent problem.
Second; if you ask the question for "vaccinations" in general, the obvious answer is no, as there are plenty of vaccinations which are not even relevant to most of the worlds population (very few people will ever get exposed to yellow fever, various Hepatites and cholera f.ex.), and several that aren't efficient enough to even reach herd protection.
Vaccination programs have been greatly widened in recent years, and differ a lot between countries, I am not sure there is any vaccine that really is so important that it really should be forced upon people.
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In France, some vaccinations are apparently already mandatory. They are now trying force through the manufacture of "single illness vaccines", because some of the mandatory vaccines are only available in quadruple or pentuple vaccines together with non-mandatory vaccines.
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This packaging of multiple vaccines together adds an interesting dimension to the debate. In this way pharmaceutical companies can force additional vaccines on us that are not supposed to be mandatory by packaging them in with the mandatory ones. If one is in favor of mandatory vaccines would they accept such a triple/quadruple package that might in practice make additional vaccines mandatory.
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This one is a no brainer for me. We pay the most in the world for medical attention and we are number 36 or 38 in the world in health care. I think American has a hard time putting two and two together and coming up with the right answer. Have you ever listen to the disclaimer about the drugs that are being pushed on T.V.? You have to truly be not paying attention to think that the drug industry is attempting to help you. Did you know that mercury is added to vaccines to make them seem more effective?
In American, G.M.O. are mandatory for those who can not afford not to eat it. Not because the government put out a notice that you have to eat this stuff, but because it tells you that you don't have the right to know what you are eating. With vaccines your not supposed to be smart enough to know what's good for you so we will tell you what to do. You can take them if you like, but don't tell me I have to like it too.
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I don't think mercury is still added, and at least it is to a lesser extent and being replaced by other substances.
When mercury and other metals are added it is to make the vaccine work, not "seem" to work.
That being said, I'd be very sceptical of taking a vaccine with mercury et. al. today.
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Please recheck your information Mercury is still being used. I say seem because the cell count returns to prior levels after time. What is your reason for believing that any metals are beneficial, Please help, I know of none.
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Whether you wish to vaccinate or not is your decision and should be protected at all costs. If you do not read a lot of research please consider this simple formula to help make the decision.
If someone or group is trying to get you to buy something or take something even if it is for free please take a moment to step back and think about whether this individual, group or organization is making millions to billions of dollars off of your decision, then maybe they do not have your best interests in mind. We all know to well that money talks!
We all talk about how bad bullying in our society is and yet we allow it from the medical associations, governments both local and national, media by trying to brain wash ideas into your head. I know first hand that their are doctors and nurses out there who will vaccinate your kids but will not vaccinate their own. Why, because if they try to voice an opinion different to the associations they belong to they will be chastised very badly. The pharmaceutical companies bully the medical profession, the medical profession bully their doctors, and the doctors and nurses then bully their patients. What ever happened to free speech or opinions without fear of reprisal.
Lastly please try to keep well in formed and not just from your medical doctor or nurse.
Remember to ask who did the research article and who paid for it and did they get some financial benefit from it. This will tell a lot about how trustworthy the research is.
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It's a really hard and controversial topic. I have chosen to vaccinate my son however I have a friend who hasn't vaccinated hers and we both accept each others decision. But it also worries me having her 2 year old around my infant son, considering he can pass diseases without symptoms. So it's tough. I still think we should have a choice but I think, unless there's a medical reason why you cannot be, children should be immunised.
Nice post, keep up the good work. Upvoted and following.
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Thank you for selecting me as the winner, I really appreciate it! I knew I was doing OK on the quantity component, but I'm happy the quality was deemed sufficient.
It seems that this week, I'll be more of a spectator of the discussion as I'm not really sure which side to take on this controversial issue. In my opinion, what makes the issue of mandatory vaccines difficult is striking a balance between individual rights and risk. We have the right to take a risk for ourselves and there are a lot of legal behaviors that actually put others at risk too (like driving). There are risks for both the individual and society when people don't get vaccinated while when you get vaccinated, you shoulder all the risk for the particular vaccination shot (as tiny as they are) while the risk for society becomes lower. I'm not sure I support placing this burden on individuals and I myself have skipped a number of supposedly mandatory shots (because I was a teenager that couldn't be bothered, not because I objected to the procedure). On the other hand, mandatory vaccination is the only practical way to get rid of some diseases that has been shown to work.
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Nice post
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If vaccines are expected to be mandatory, someone should be accountable if there is a negative side effect, death, etc. Right now, no one is accountable. Laws were passed in the late 90's to protect Big Pharma and the medical industry from any lawsuits. That alone should make you think.
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Mandatory no.. there needs to be transparency in how the vaccine is made, what ingredients are in it, what those are made from, the risks involved getting vaccinated and the risks not getting vaccinated. ..
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Good day everyone
I believe that vaccinations should be made mandatory because failure to do so will bring untold hardship to children if an outbreak of disease occurs.
True to what was said in the post, there have been a lot of misinformation in the media that has led to negative notions about vaccination,a way to solve this is for government to set up appropriate media channels to educate parents on the importance of vaccination.
Outreach programs should be held for people in remote areas that has no Internet connections.
And it will be helpful if mothers are taught the importance of vaccinations right from the antenatal period.
I don't believe parents have the right to say No, if anything happens it is the child that will suffer it.
@ogochukwu
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Saying with all the respect I can, that is a blatant disregard for the rights of others. I suggest that a better solution is to provide accommodations for those with different opinions. Anytime you say something should be mandated you have disregarded the rights of others.
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couldn't agree more!
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Let take the flu shot as an example, the chance of a death or rigorous reaction may be small but why should anyone be FORCED to be injected and face these possible outcome if they won't want to. People should be able to choose not to take unnecessary risk if they please.
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Hello @oldman28
But they still pose greater risk to themselves and others if they reject vaccinations, how do you think that should be approached.
Will they have to live in isolation, how will the problem of passing disease to others be solved then.
@justice4 just commented of her fears about her friends child who did not get vaccinated transmitting it to her child.
@ogochukwu
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Hi the topic is if it should be force on to people. There are other ways to protect or cure diseases. The question as i see it really boil down to do you believe some politicians knows better and can via the excuse of democracy strip people the freedom to make their own decision. To which I say no.
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So I think that you need to immunize unless there is a truly good reason. Those are few and far between. Yes drug companies are horrible, and only care about profits. But there is no doubt that immunizing saves lives. I will liken this to faith healing. If a parent fails to immunize, and the child dies or is debilitated, the parents go to jail. Just like parents who faith heal. If you do something stupid, you get rewarded with jail. Although I am not a fan of our criminal justice system either. The sad part of this is that people are trusting people like Jenny McCarthy over doctors and scientists. Thank you, this is a good subject.
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Much of the problem here as always is a lack of information. At one time prior to the 1930's ( a lot of bad things happen in the 30's and many things changed into cash registers) That is the past and unless you look for the information himself one tends to parrot Doctors and Scientists who have themselves only learn one way of dealing with a problem. In our society, everything must be linked to large sums of currency. And scientists and doctors are the biggest culprits other than the wepons dealers.
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Sorry forgot to resteem.
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