UC System Wisely Mandates Vaccines Prior to Enrollment

The University of California Office of the President announced on Jan. 6 that it will make vaccines mandatory for all UC students, effective in 2017. The mandate appears to have come about as a response to the measles outbreak at Disneyland and the general trend toward fewer vaccinated children in California. Even though someone on the fringes may take issue with the university system’s new rule, it’s necessary to guarantee the medical safety of the UC community.

Before looking at the implications, it’s important to note that there is absolutely no link between vaccines and autism, according to the scientific and medical community, and the only paper finding anything to the contrary was debunked years ago. Out of ignorance, some parents, especially those from affluent Californian communities, have decided not to vaccinate their children, creating unnecessary risk for everyone they come into contact with. Since many of these kids are going to attend college, and likely schools in the UC system, the mandate seems necessary and practical.

The risk for disease contraction at UCSD is compounded by the fact that students go to class, study and sleep in close quarters. It’s not uncommon for most of an entire dorm to get sick at the same time, especially considering how overcrowding has led to double rooms on campus being converted to triples. And some of the diseases that require vaccination, like measles, are extremely contagious, airborne diseases. If the anti-vaccine movement keeps its momentum and the UC system hadn’t passed the mandate, it would be setting itself up for a major disaster.

Some might raise the issue that many students may not be able to afford the vaccinations or might have an issue with getting them due to a lack of documentation. Luckily for them, UCSD Student Health Services offers all required shots for free to students, making the mandate easy to enforce without the risk of dropping enrollment numbers.

Even though the vaccination mandate is the university’s best choice for its students and its own interests, the UC system probably will still face consequences for its decision. It’s likely that lawsuits will be filed by dissenting students and families who choose not to get vaccinations for whatever reason, be that a violation of personal freedom or religious beliefs.

Of course, this isn’t too different from saying that someone should have personal freedom to drive drunk. There probably wouldn’t be such harsh DUI laws if it didn’t put everyone else on the road in harm’s way. Similarly, anyone who skips vaccinations doesn’t grasp the gravity of the danger it puts others in. Measles once caused plagues that leveled civilizations and killed hundreds of millions of people. Mumps caused pandemics that led to thousands of miscarriages and birth complications. So, no, this isn’t a matter of personal freedom.

There’s really no excuse at this point not to be vaccinated, and it’s a good step that the University of California system has taken by mandating vaccines. It simply shows that we have almost the same level of common sense that we did decades ago.

 

 

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