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Calli Maroulis
Ms.Wilcox
English Pre-AP-1
14 May 2015
Vaccinations Should Be Required by Law
The MMR vaccine has been around since 1971. It has been very effective in
preventing measles, mumps, and rubella. The measles were at a point where it could have
been eradicated in the US. Instead of that happening, the cases have gone up the past
years due to one thing. People have decided to not vaccinate their children because a now
discredited doctor said the vaccines cause autism. I know that is false information and
believe that the Law should require everyone to be vaccinated in order to prevent a
dreadful epidemic from starting again.
According to the CDC, in the decade before the vaccine was available, nearly all
children in the United States got measles by the time they were 15 years of age and
about 3 to 4 million people were infected each year(CDC). They created the MMR
vaccine because there was a desperate plea to stop the virus. They created the MMR
vaccine to stop death and bring back health. They created the MMR vaccine to stop this
outbreak and to prevent further epidemics. (Repition ,E) In 2000, a total of only 86
confirmed measles cases were reported to the CDC, setting a record low and a 14%
decrease from the 100 cases reported in each of the previous 2 years. (L)
In order to maintain the low numbers of cases, everyone needs to be vaccinated twice as a
child. Recently the number of cases has increased, from January 1st to May 1st 169 cases

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and 5 outbreaks have been reported to the CDC.If everyone were vaccinated, this would
not be a problem because it could not spread into an epidemic, but that isnt the case.
A lot of people are wondering, why would someone not vaccinate their kids? The
vaccine isnt expensive, hard to receive, in low supply or just a way for the
pharmaceuticals to profit. The answer is due to an article written by Andrew Wakefield.
He was previously known as Doctor Andrew Wakefield, until his licenses to practice
medicine was taken away. (L or E) His article said, The MMR vaccine leads to autism,
but according to the CDC, this theory is false and has been proved against in 100s
other studies. (CDC) Still today people are choosing not to vaccinate. They say things
like " why should you worry about me vaccinating my kids, if your kids are 'protected' by
the vaccines in the first place? Here is why we should be worried. Say a new classmate
comes over from the Philippines and brings the measles with them. Measles is so highly
contagious that if half the kids are vaccinated and half of them arent, 90% of the
unvaccinated kids will get the measles.(Aldrige 533.) Meanwhile, the vaccinated kids
are being exposed to the virus so much that their immune system gets to weak to continue
fighting it and they get sick as well. Now pretty much the whole class and their families
are sick, the teachers and other students have it, their families get it, their coworkers get
it. (P) See how fast it spreads? That is how an outbreak starts and leads to an epidemic.
For us to prevent any epidemic, we need to vaccinate every child. For every child
to be vaccinated, we need to have all parents choose to do so. For that to happen,
everyone would have to agree, which doesnt happen. For us to prevent an epidemic, we
need to make vaccinations required by law. (Anaphora) It is the only way to prevent an
outbreak measles and save lives.

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