Over the course of the past month there have been outbreaks of both measles and mumps in the states of Missouri and Ohio. Measles, which the United States declared was eliminated from the country in 2000, was brought back to Missouri when a local family adopted a child from China who had not been diagnosed with the disease nor vaccinated against it, since vaccinations are not required for international adoptions. Regarding the case in Ohio, it began in February at The Ohio State University. The outbreak has since spread to areas outside the university, affecting 225 people.

Adopting a child can be a wonderful experience, especially if the child is an orphan in need of a loving home. The adoptive parents want their new child to have the best possible life it can have, so why do the adoption agencies not mandate the vaccination of international children? The hope is that the child lives a happy and healthy life in its new home in the United States, so to get it off on the right foot, it should be vaccinated against all the diseases that are not present in the United States. This action puts the health of the adoptive child and those around it at a lower risk.

In order to curb the spread of the OSU mumps outbreak, local elementary schools attempted to ensure that the incoming kindergarteners would be safe and vaccinated against this terrible disease. However, nearly 3,000 students handed in exemption notes mainly for either religious or philosophical reasons. I firmly believe in the freedom of religion, one of the pillars that our nation was built upon, but this issue goes beyond religion. This issue affects the health of both adults and children, whose immune systems have not fully developed yet.

Not having a child vaccinated against a disease not only affects the health of that child, but it affects the health of the entire community around the child. One of the local school districts in Ohio forbade children who were not vaccinated from coming to school, which not only affects the children’s academic potential but their social potential as well. Modern technology has created the possibility that classes can be watched via a computer screen, but during a child’s formative years, face-to-face interaction and the teaching of proper classroom etiquette are important. In addition, a child who is not vaccinated and forced to stay home from school may be at a social disadvantage if he is unable to interact with the other students. His parents may teach him the difference between right and wrong, but he might not have as much experience putting his parents’ teachings into practice. Another social disadvantage is that he might not be able to play with any of the friends that he makes, since the parents of the unvaccinated child would not want their vaccinated child to go to the house of the unvaccinated child, nor would they want the unvaccinated child in their own house.

When it comes to contagious viral diseases, one cannot merely focus on the self. There is a greater community that is affected by the actions of those who do not wish to be vaccinated. If the argument against vaccination is that the child will contract the disease as a result of the vaccine, the benefits greatly exceed the risk. Any side effects received from vaccination are minor and range somewhere in the realm between a sore arm and a mild fever. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the risk of death from the measles without being vaccinated is 2 in 1,000. The risk of any severe allergic reaction from receiving the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine is 1 in 1,000,000. Vaccinations are crucial to the nation’s health, and if everyone decided to vaccinate themselves and their children, there would be more diseases that would be eradicated from the country.