Vaccines’ have been hailed for curing, and even eliminating, many diseases such as polio and whopping cough in many places with high vaccine rates. Many cities and countries are even mandating vaccines for students to attend public schools. Do what extent do you agree or disagree with this policy.

The subject of disease prevention is a contentious topic. This is a multi-faceted issue and one that has a multitude of solutions. Yet, one of the most deliberated is that of mandating vaccines for students in public schools. A particular percentage of the population argues that this policy would contribute significantly to increasing vaccination rates and this paper certainly agrees with this proclamation. This is due to the abundance surrounding the issue of vaccines with specifically highlighting how people are often self-interested and that governments have the right to protect their citizens from such diseases.

Individual members of society have the right to act in a self-interested manner, and yet, there are circumstances in which this type of behavior can have a detrimental effect on the larger society. A specific example is that of vaccines. Some argue that they ought to be exempt from such mandates out of “personal” reasons, and this is a text book definition of citizens acting in their own best interests. However, one of the necessary premises of using vaccines is that a majority of those healthy people need to have the vaccine in order to prevent a disease from spreading to everyone.

When vaccine rates drop below a certain threshold, the diseases have a better chance of spreading to a greater portion of society. By being able to opt out of such a program, individuals are involuntary harming others and thus government entities have a right to intervene and require people to receive vaccines. The best platform for such a program would be students entering into the public education system.

With all things considered, the most promising result for rectifying the issue of eradicating certain diseases is to mandate vaccines for public schools. The preponderance of evidence ranging from the risk of having individuals not vaccinated to how the government has a right to protect its people highlights the clear need to implement such an effective measure. In light of the argument laid out above, it is hoped that this discussion moves into the public realm in order to progress the movement forward.