Vaccines should not be mandatory for citizens of the U.S.
Although there is no federal law that mandates getting vaccinated, all 50 states independently require its citizens to be properly vaccinated before they are allowed to attend school.
More people benefit each year from being vaccinated than those who are negatively affected, according to the Centers for Disease Control. With that said, there are still people who have adverse reactions to vaccines every year. 30,000 people, to be exact. The CDC reports that of those 30,000 people, 10 to 15 percent are major cases where the victim ends up hospitalized, disabled or dead.
There are a lot of ingredients in vaccines that can cause allergic reactions and many people do not know they are allergic until they come in contact with the ingredient.
Forcing vaccinations on the public puts them at a risk they have no control over. This is not an argument to abolish vaccines, but an argument to allow people the choice to decide for themselves if they want to take the risk.
This nation was established on the principle of freedom. Mandating vaccines would restrict our freedom. Another principle of this nation is religious liberty.
Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe in tampering with your blood. Some members of the church have accepted vaccinations, but there are still many conservative members who believe vaccinations go against what God asks.
Although they are one of the more recognizable religions, there are more that choose to stay away from vaccines, such as the Dutch Reformed Church, Christian Science Church and the Amish church.
There are also many philosophical reasons why people would rather not be vaccinated. Having to be vaccinated because it is for the good of the general public disallows us to make a decision based on our own research and reasoning.
John Burke, a writer for Infowars, compares this argument to abortion. He said that a solid argument for abortion is that we have no right to tell a woman what to do with her body. The same argument should be said for putting a substance in a person’s body or in the body of his or her child. Do we not have the right to refuse putting something foreign into our blood?
Again, this is not an argument against getting vaccinated. We have to be free to make our own choices. We have the resources to educate ourselves to the potential benefits and risks of vaccines and should be able to make a decision based on that. Forcing vaccinations would put some religious groups in the tough spot of having to choose between the law of their country and what they believe.
