Vaccinate all children

Over the past several years, childhood vaccination has become a topic of national debate, one that has also become of significant concern in Arkansas. Arkansas is one of 18 states that allows both religiously and philosophically (personal belief) based school-vaccination exemptions. These nonmedical vaccination exemptions are dangerous to unvaccinated children, those who rely on herd immunity, and to the general public’s health; for these reasons, I believe nonmedical vaccination exemptions should be made illegal.

One of the initial concerns that sparked the debate on immunization was the allegation that vaccines can cause severe and undisclosed side effects, most notably autism. Vaccine safety concerns have been addressed, and the 2002 article linking vaccines and autism debunked, but there are still some who refrain from vaccinating themselves and their children. Additionally, there are very few religious theologies that explicitly discourage vaccination, and those that do generally practice faith-healing in lieu of modern medical intervention.

Some may argue that banning religious school vaccination exemptions would be unconstitutional, but past Supreme Court rulings have indicated otherwise. In the case Prince v. Massachusetts, it was found that “the right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death.”

Vaccine-preventable illnesses are costly, painful, and sometimes deadly. I urge Arkansas to pass legislation against school vaccination exemptions, and to require that all children be fully immunized before they are admitted into public or private schools. ABBY BRYAN Maumelle