Dear Future President,

We know that you will have to deal with many problems throughout the four years you are in the office. A more transparent problem is that many people don’t realize that mandatory vaccinations would greatly help our country. Multiple major diseases have been eliminated or reduced by vaccinations. If we were to stop using vaccinations, it could lead to many major epidemics that could not be prevented. For example, smallpox was a major disease in the late 1700s, and caused 400,000 deaths during its reign. Because of scientists’ invention of the vaccine, smallpox has been successfully eradicated. The effects and spread of polio have been greatly decreased thanks to vaccines as well.

Although vaccines have done much good to help people, they are not perfect, just like anything else in this world. Especially when vaccines were first invented, they used to contain small amounts of thimerosal, a mercury-based compound. Another problem, one that affects one in a million children who receive a vaccine, is that they will have an allergic reaction that could kill. As we know, people have different beliefs, some of which do not condone vaccinations. One big thing that contradicts mandatory vaccinations is that the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This means that technically we would be going against the Constitution to make vaccines mandatory.

While there are many negatives, there are also lots of positives. The most important being that vaccines can save children’s lives. According to Shot@Life, vaccines save 2.5 million children every year from preventable diseases. CDC estimated that 732,000 children were saved from death by diseases by vaccines between the years 1994 and 2014. If we didn’t have the invention of vaccines, many of the people we know and love would not be around today. While there are minuscule doses of deadly ingredients in vaccines, they are at an amount small enough not to cause harm. Back to thimerosal, while it is deadly in large doses, it is an insufficient amount to be toxic in such small doses. In fact, children are more likely to encounter deadly bacteria and viruses while doing daily activities than anything in a vaccine shot.

While there are a few cons to vaccines, compared to the pros, it is evident that mandatory vaccination would not have a negative impact on our country. In fact, in 2008 Barack Obama said, “There is every reason to get vaccinated, but there aren't reasons to not." If you were to do something to make vaccinations mandatory, I believe you will not regret it.

Many Thanks,

Grady D. & Ryan A.

Our References:

"Vaccines ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. Not Applicable, 19 Sept. 2016. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.

"Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 23 Nov. 2015. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.