Readers: Children Should Be Required To Be Vaccinated
As a child of the 60s (barely) and 70s I received all the normal vaccines available at that time, so the news that some parents today don’t get their kids vaccinated came as a shock. The measles has returned to the US as a result:
Scientifically, there is no debate. The measles vaccine is effective. Most of those who contract measles, unsurprisingly, are those who are unvaccinated.
But a conversation about the current measles outbreak brings up other ideas — on personal and religious freedoms, skepticism of scientific findings, reach of government regulations — that are inherently political. And here is where the arguments arise. (CNN – Measles outbreak: How bad is it?)
Kids too young or too sick to receive the vaccine are placed at risk by healthy but unvaccinated kids. Here are the results from the Sunday Poll:
Q: When it comes to childhood diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough, should all children be required to get vaccinations?
- Democrat: require vaccines 18 [51.43%]
- Independent: require vaccines 10 [28.57%]
- Republican: require vaccines 4 [11.43%]
- Independent: allow opt-out 2 [5.71%]
- Democrat: allow opt-out 1 [2.86%]
- Tie: 0 [0%]
- Republican: allow opt-out
- Democrat: don’t know/decline to answer
- Republican: don’t know/decline to answer
- Independent: don’t know/decline to answer
Over 91% — across the political spectrum — agreed with requiring vaccines. This is different than a recent national poll where only 60% supported requiring, with 37% for opt-outs. Nationally Democrats favored requiring vaccines at a higher rate (65%) than Republicans (58%) and Independents (48%). Not enough votes here to draw any conclusions other than Democrats make up over half the readership.
— Steve Patterson