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Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/should-a-covid-19-vaccine-be-mandatory
Should a COVID-19 Vaccine Be Mandatory?
Despite evidence that compulsory vaccination programs work, public health experts predict (surprise!) a backlash.
By Benjamin PlackettOctober 22, 2020 5:45 PM
As scientists race to produce a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19, many experts are pondering how to administer such a vaccine — and whether it should be mandatory.
The United States is no stranger to mandatory vaccination programs and there’s plenty of evidence that they can work, but Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute of Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, fears attitudes towards public health measures have changed so rapidly in 2020 that such an approach for COVID-19 could backfire. “I’m really worried about that,” he says. “Lots of people don’t want to wear masks or accept that the virus is real.”
Acceptance of a vaccine, mandatory or not, is similarly challenged. The share of Americans who say they’d either probably or definitely get vaccinated against COVID-19 has tumbled from 71 percent in May to 51 percent in September, according to polling data from the Pew Research Center. This downward trend is more pronounced among Republican Party voters — a majority of whom say they would now shun such a vaccine — but the data showed a similar trend among Democratic Party voters, too.
“Look at the backlash right now, you can only imagine what it would be like with [mandatory] vaccines,” says Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Colorado.
And yet, mandatory vaccination programs have existed in the U.S. since the early 20th century, when all children were required to attend elementary school for the first time. States began to legislate that access to public education be conditional upon vaccination for various diseases. These rules expanded in the 1970s and 1980s and studies have shown that the laws are clearly linked with lower rates of vaccine-preventable diseases...
Should a COVID-19 Vaccine Be Mandatory?
Despite evidence that compulsory vaccination programs work, public health experts predict (surprise!) a backlash.
By Benjamin PlackettOctober 22, 2020 5:45 PM
As scientists race to produce a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19, many experts are pondering how to administer such a vaccine — and whether it should be mandatory.
The United States is no stranger to mandatory vaccination programs and there’s plenty of evidence that they can work, but Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute of Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, fears attitudes towards public health measures have changed so rapidly in 2020 that such an approach for COVID-19 could backfire. “I’m really worried about that,” he says. “Lots of people don’t want to wear masks or accept that the virus is real.”
Acceptance of a vaccine, mandatory or not, is similarly challenged. The share of Americans who say they’d either probably or definitely get vaccinated against COVID-19 has tumbled from 71 percent in May to 51 percent in September, according to polling data from the Pew Research Center. This downward trend is more pronounced among Republican Party voters — a majority of whom say they would now shun such a vaccine — but the data showed a similar trend among Democratic Party voters, too.
“Look at the backlash right now, you can only imagine what it would be like with [mandatory] vaccines,” says Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Colorado.
And yet, mandatory vaccination programs have existed in the U.S. since the early 20th century, when all children were required to attend elementary school for the first time. States began to legislate that access to public education be conditional upon vaccination for various diseases. These rules expanded in the 1970s and 1980s and studies have shown that the laws are clearly linked with lower rates of vaccine-preventable diseases...