Growing up in Sri Lanka it was a given that everyone would be vaccinated. It wasn’t really a choice of the parents since all school students had to be vaccinated to prevent other student from being affected by those who were not vaccinated. I assumed this was the system all around the world.

Yet, when I attended the table talk on Public Health and Vaccines I was proven wrong. I learnt that in the US it’s a personal choice of the parents and the individual if they want to be vaccinated or not. This was due to moral and ethical concerns. Some concerns were that injecting a dead virus or inactive virus could potentially end up causing the disease. Another concern is that vaccines may cause autism in children. Yet, years of scientific research has found that vaccines are in fact safe and that they have prevented many harmful diseases from spreading. This got me thinking is it morally right to let another person get sick simply because you weren’t vaccinated? Is it really right not to do something that causes third party harm?

Personally, I disagree with this policy in the US. I believe that all children if they are going to school they should be vaccinated and it shouldn’t be a choice of the parents. If the parents do not want to vaccinate their children, they should be homeschooled and not sent to public or private schools where they are risking the health of other students that have been vaccinated. Especially if there are any students undergoing chemotherapy they are specially at risk.