ART 250 (Liberatore-Alexandria)

Since the early 20th Century, the public and experts have debated whether vaccines are effective, how they should be regulated and, more recently, whether vaccines cause Autism (Matlesky 32). Of all the questions surrounding vaccines, however, none is more passionately argued than mandatory vaccination programs for children attending public schools. In a key 1922 case, Zucht v. King, the Supreme Court upheld states’ right to require vaccinations for children attending public schools (Matlesky 127). The Court argued that, "a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members" (Brandeis 33). 

Just as it was over a century ago, the impact of vaccines on public health is the key issue in current debates on mandatory vaccination. If vaccination protects public health, then states have the right to require vaccination as a condition of public school enrollment. Those who oppose vaccination have focused their arguments on proving that vaccination actually hurts public health. Specifically, they argue that vaccinations cause Austim and other developmental disorders (Shiroff and Buckland 79). These arguments are dubious, however, because numerous studies have shown that there is no link between vaccination and autism. In a 2015 report by the CDC, scientists analyzed a sample of over 1,000 children in two group (vaccinated and unvaccinated) and found that vaccination did not cause autism or cause children with autism to develop symptoms earlier (Bekri 346). The study also found that Autism is a "developmental disorder that is present at birth, and symptoms develop during the early childhood years" (Bekri 348). Since Autism is present at birth, nothing that happens after birth (like getting a vaccination) can possibly impact whether one has the disorder.