For certain things, absolutely. In Romania and Italy there have been an outbreaks of measles, of all things, because immunisation rates have dropped there.

I don’t think the flu shots should be every year. I think people should stay home if they have the flu and every one should wash their hands more, with non-antibacterial soap.

We don’t vaccinate for chicken pox as regular thing, but I think that might change soon.

In New Jersey, parents had to provide their children’s vaccination records for them to begin school.

I believe that is the case in NY, at least it is in my district, @janbb. I agree with that policy.

I think it should be mandatory. In my state you cannot work in the healthcare field if you don’t have your vaccine records.

Only in certain extreme cases. People must be allowed the right of refusal. If we lose that the voices of scrutiny won’t have any teeth. Despite all the anti-vaccine bullshit society still needs people to question things and have an avenue to force a meaningfull protest.

Vaccination isn’t something to protest about. Would you protest clean water so you could keep the right to die of dysentery?

Not usually but you never know. Untested or unproven vaccines made compulsory is not something we want.

General Note

People often have different ideas about what “mandatory” means, so let’s draw a distinction between conditional and unconditional mandates. A conditional mandate is when individuals are allowed to opt-out, but there is some sort of cost for doing so. An unconditional mandate does not allow people to opt-out and includes measures to force compliance.

So while school attendance is mandatory in the US, no one goes out and drags absent students to class. Parents face fines and even jail time for not sending their kids to school, but the students are never forced to sit down in front of a teacher. And of course, there are options for fulfilling the mandate other than the public school system (such as private schools and homeschooling).

The existence of a mandate, then, doesn’t mean anyone can be forced to comply. Only an unconditional mandate goes that far.

Specific Answer

I think we should have a carrot and stick approach that still preserves people’s individual freedoms (in short, a conditional mandate). The carrot? All basic vaccines are provided free of charge to the recipient provided they are received on schedule. Alternatively, children with anti-vaccine parents can receive them for free when they achieve the age of majority and no longer need the permission of a parent.

The stick? If they aren’t willing to participate in public safety measures, they don’t have to be allowed into (certain) public spaces. So unvaccinated children can be prohibited from attending public schools, for example, and their parents must abide by all laws concerning the education of children (meaning that they must either homeschool their children or send them to a private school that accepts unvaccinated children).

Exceptions should of course be made for children who have valid medical reasons for not receiving the vaccines.

Vaccines, like prescription medications, go through strict testing. Your homeopathic or ‘natural cures’, however, do not. Protest against the dismantling of the FDA. They need to be accountable and given the time and power to test.

IMO many prescription meds would not be prescribed if they were not allowed to directly market to consumers. It’s a big industry, there is a lot of money on the table. Regulations and testing don’t always catch everything. People still need the right to refuse but I agree with @SavoirFaire about how we deal with those who refuse things that are known safe.

You are right. Most countries don’t allow direct marketing of prescription meds. The us should fix that.

Oligarchy has a huge personal price.

Some strict regulations on lobbying would probably fix a lot of these problems.

Yes. Diseases spread too rapidly now for us to wring our hands over individual liberties on this issue. At some point, we have to decide to stop accommodating the will of the stubborn and uneducated.

Mandating a cure for smallpox or polio makes a lot of sense. We’re getting to the point where it goes well beyond deadly contagious diseases though. I think we have to acknowledge that each side has at least the basics of an argument.

Texas mandated Gardasil less than a year after it was approved by the FDA. A guy who believes you can pray for rain suddenly mandated a vaccine by executive order (no vote) that just happened to be produced by only one company. Something was wrong there and he later changed his mind when it suited him.

Vaccination is fine and should be done once a vaccine is proven safe. Using government that is manipulated by so many variables to do it is where things get questionable. I don’t know how else you enforce a mandate though, so perhaps a little bit of wiggle room is preferable.

I feel bad for countries who can’t count on their government for unbiased and transparent action. Maybe you should all work on that.

Gerrymandering has pretty much guaranteed there isn’t a change in state politics until the practice is either outlawed or becomes a hot topic.

Every few years we get a new map, it makes its way through the court system, is ruled illegal, and then redrawn again with the same intent. It’s not like the current crop of folks is going to outlaw the practice that makes them win so convincingly.

The truth is, the majority here is just fine with it.

Nowhere is perfect, I guess. How’s the king?

Of course they should. But you already knew I would write that.

@cazzie Flu shots are not mandatory generally. We require them to work in the hospital but they’re not on the mandatory list of vaccines to get. Personally I think that anybody who does not get a flu shot is an idiot, but people are allowed to be idiots.

@Rarebear I haven’t known them to be very effective where I live. I think it just has to do with the strains of flu that go around.

Effectiveness varies greatly year to year.

About ten years ago, I had Guillain Barre Syndrome. The neurologist told me to avoid vaccinations from here on and so I don’t get them. I haven’t had a flu vaccine in about 20 years and have never gotten the flu in my life. The only reason I got the flu vaccine 20 years ago was that I worked for a local municipality that gave out free flu shots (on work time no less) so that’s why I did it at that time.

@jca I also have an autoimmune disorder. In my family, they come in groups. I’m trying to avoid incurring more. I avoid steroids and unnecessary antibiotics, and yearly flu shots. It’s extremely rare that immunisations would cause autoimmune problems, but my autoimmune disease is rare. I’d rather stay home with a flu bug for 3 days than accumulate more ‘rareness’.

Yes, unless there is a genuine medical reason to not vaccinate. We have recently introduced regulations that prohibit children without up-to-date vaccinations (unless they have a valid medical reason) from attending public preschools, schools etc. I support this move. Successful protection of the majority requires the majority to be vaccinated. I don’t want to see the return of diseases such as smallpox and I’d like to see diseases such as measles eliminated.

However, we also need to target under-vaccinated adults. Many adults in Australia are either not vaccinated or are incompletely vaccinated.

They no longer vaccinate against small pox. Not since about 1970 or so. Polio is not wiped out. Horrible new strains of TB are showing up in India. We still need science research to control and wipe out these horrible diseases.