Evan Short 247.155

Vaccination in Vacation Town As I mentioned in my last blog my family and I have just come out of a few weeks of concurrent household illness; to be honest the whole island has been sick, even the main pharmacy on the island has a huge chalk board out the front of the shop showing how many flu vaccinations they have left to offer, each day the previous day's number is struck through and the updated count of jabs is written on. As per the last blog: the irony is not missed on me. The problem with my position paper topic: I have a folder full of research all backing up having strong vaccination recommendation policies, mandatory vaccination policies and how in the absence of either or both of these things communities and micro-populations such as schools can have outbreaks of communicable diseases. My problem is that I'm yet to find anything credible (be it from an ethical, medical or scientific standpoint) that speaks to the other side of the argument. I worrying now ...

Summarising the debate The last few week's attempts to study had been beset by horrendous sickness; my own, my wife's, our child's and guests from New Zealand we had hosted at our house. So now, whilst trawling through studies into the efficacy of flu vaccines and whether any herd immunity can be attained in an immunised population, I find myself chuckling at the irony of my situation. The issue at hand: So as fraught as the wider debate around vaccination itself is and with my position paper topic being quite specifically about mandatory vaccinations as a school/pre-school enrolment requirement I decided to delve into research around the efficacy of mandatory vaccination enforcement for school attendance in other countries. I was hoping to find data on vaccination uptake, contraction incidence and school participation (i.e. were children home-schooled more as a result) in populations where mandatory vaccination policies were initiated. What I found: I ...