Should there be a penalty for not vaccinating yourself or your kids?

I know when there was a local outbreak of measles,
we had to show proof (at work) of being vaccinated.

It's the other group on non-vaccinators that bother me -- the educated, middle class, should know better, main stream, people who have some crazy fear of vaccines. They rely on the "herd" to keep their kids safe, do they not realize that there is a chunk of the herd that doesn't have their access? Probably they just haven't thought about it. I don't have any problem saying that these main-streamers should be made to vaccinate their kids.

It's the other group on non-vaccinators that bother me -- the educated, middle class, should know better, main stream, people who have some crazy fear of vaccines. They rely on the "herd" to keep their kids safe, do they not realize that there is a chunk of the herd that doesn't have their access? Probably they just haven't thought about it. I don't have any problem saying that these main-streamers should be made to vaccinate their kids.

Agreed - this is the group that bothers me. Using my child for their protection. Children of parents that do not have the money or knowledge - that is a different story. However, I remember as a child going to a school where they were offering free vaccines - I forgot which one it was - but I know that these are offered still today.

I'd agree with you on that David, other than not getting vaccinated effects society as a whole, not just the one person.

For example if you were to smoke (not directly in front of me) and we all know it is bad for you - your business that you are slowly killing yourself.
If you were to smoke in front of my face, then it impacts my health and there is an issue.

Not getting vaccinated can cause an outbreak that could impact
all of society similar to some one smoking in your face.

Maurice Hilleman is credited with saving more lives than any other scientist in the 20th century. He was an American microbiologist who developed over three dozen vaccines. In 1909, Hilleman was born near the town of Miles City, Montana. His twin sister died at birth, and his mother passed away two days later. In 1941, Hilleman received his doctoral degree in microbiology from the University of Chicago. From 1948 to 1958, he began to research the influenza virus. The 1918 Spanish flu is the most serious influenza pandemic in recent history. During the 1918 flu pandemic, some 550 million, or 32% of the entire world population was infected, between 50 and 100 million died, making the pandemic one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.

In the 1950s, Maurice Hilleman identified the fact that genetic changes occur when the influenza virus mutates, known as shift and drift. The discovery helped him recognize that an outbreak of flu in Hong Kong could produce a huge pandemic in the 1950s. Following a hunch, Hilleman discovered a new strain of influenza. He developed a vaccine for the virus and forty million doses were distributed all over the world. In 1957, Hilleman joined the Merck & Co. research organization in West Point, Pennsylvania. While working at Merck, Maurice developed over forty experimental and licensed animal and human vaccines. In 1963, Maurice Hilleman’s daughter Jeryl Lynn was diagnosed with the mumps. In response, he cultivated material from her, and used it as the basis for a mumps vaccine that is still used today.

Maurice Hilleman and his group of researchers invented vaccines for measles, mumps, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria. He also played a role in the discovery of the cold-producing adenoviruses, the hepatitis viruses, and the cancer-causing virus SV40. Maurice considered his work on Hepatitis B to be his single greatest achievement. He ran his laboratory like a military unit and did not name any of his vaccines after himself. “If I had to name a person who has done more for the benefit of human health, with less recognition than anyone else, it would be Maurice Hilleman. Maurice should be recognized as the most successful vaccinologist in history.” He passed away on April 11, 2005, at the age of 85.

In a related note...

I was just reading a list of (one person's opinion of) what should be taught in schools. This was one:

Maurice Hilleman is credited with saving more lives than any other scientist in the 20th century.
He was an American microbiologist who developed over three dozen vaccines.

In 1909, Hilleman was born near the town of Miles City, Montana.
. . . He passed away on April 11, 2005, at the age of 85.

Thanks, osso. I've done burn barrels, didn't realize there used to be built-up household incinerators.

I know that bit of LA you're talking about rather well, I think -- was thinking about moving there at one time, years ago.

When i was a child, we burned our trash--most people in our little town did. In the autumn, we burned our leaves, and everyone else in town did, too.

In 1963, Maurice Hilleman’s daughter Jeryl Lynn was diagnosed with the mumps. In response, he cultivated material from her, and used it as the basis for a mumps vaccine that is still used today.

Robert, if the policy had been clear that you would need the vaccination in order to return home would you have had the vaccination before you left? Or maybe not have taken the trip after all?

If you thought that you might present a public health hazard would you have changed your behavior?

Here's a thought, and surely it's already being employed to some degree all over the place: make it more onerous to go without the vaccine than to receive it. Require five times the paperwork and bureaucratic runaround to enrol an unvaccinated child than a vaccinated child. Have the processing time for a request to enter sans vaccine be longer than the 10 days required for the vaccine to be effective (doesn't, of course, have any bearing on those who purchase forged or misbegotten papers).