Should Vaccination be a Federal Mandate?

The sweeping effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 has rekindled and
intensified the long-standing ethical question: should vaccination be made a federal mandate?
The pandemic, which started in China in 2019 and caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, is indubitably
one of the deadliest infectious diseases to hit the US and the globe, claiming more than 1.1
million lives in the country and over 6.8 million globally, according to the reports released by
CDC (2023). Mandates against COVID-19 regulations were issued statewide, and varied from
state to state; this rule applies to all other diseases and illnesses. For example, vaccination against
communicable diseases for school-going children differs widely from state to state. For example,
all 49 states require MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) immunization before children begin
their kindergarten education except Iowa, which does not require a mumps vaccine (ProCon.org,
2023). These disparities have raised questions as to whether they predispose the country to a
public health disaster or they are necessary to protect individual rights and state sovereignty. My
take on whether to make vaccination a federal mandate is “Yes.” Although it might infringe on
personal freedoms and state sovereignty, plus erode the public’s trust in the government,
mandating immunization at the federal level is necessary to protect public welfare and safety,
guarantee equity in resource distribution, and it will only align with existing federal mandates.
The first and perhaps the overarching reason vaccination must be made a federal mandate
lies in the need to protect the health and welfare of the public (all Americans), a function that can
only be well executed if a uniform immunization law is passed that cuts across all states.

The second reason for mandating vaccine federally is the ability of such a mandate to
achieve health “equity.”

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The third and final reason is that America has a long history of federal mandates and
legal precedents that have been successfully ratified with meaningful outcomes.

Notwithstanding these benefits, mandating immunization at the national level will
infringe personal freedoms. Most opponents of federal mandates, including vaccination laws,
base their arguments on their constitutional right to make “own” and “independent decisions,
including whether or not to get immunized.

Additionally, naysayers are concerned that allowing the federal government to mandate
vaccination will infringe state sovereignty, particularly considering that states have traditionally
held the responsibility of making public health decisions affecting their territories.

Finally, there is a rebuttal that mandating immunizations at the federal level can erode the
public’s trust in government and public health agencies, particularly among factions that are
already skeptical of government overreach and vaccines.

Although most of these concerns against mandating immunization at the federal level,
there is no question that the health and safety benefits if shifting this responsibility from the state
to the federal far much outweigh the need to protect individual freedoms and state sovereignty.

Although it might infringe on personal freedoms and state sovereignty, plus erode the
public’s trust in the government, mandating immunization at the federal level is necessary to

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protect public welfare and safety, guarantee equity in resource distribution, and it will only align
with existing federal mandates.

Develop a strong thesis – a clear, concise statement of your main argument; the overall idea you’ll be
arguing. Your thesis will also serve as a roadmap for the rest of your essay, giving the reader a
general idea of the path your argument will follow.
Test your thesis. Your thesis, i.e., argument, must have two sides. It must be debatable. If you can
write down a thesis statement directly opposing your own, you will ensure that your own argument is
debatable.
Disprove the opposing argument. Understand the opposite viewpoint of your position and then
counter it by providing contrasting evidence or by finding mistakes and inconsistencies in the logic of
the opposing argument.
Support your position with evidence. Remember that your evidence must appeal to reason.

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References

CDC. (2023). COVID data tracker. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#datatracker-home
ProCon.org. (2023). State-by-state: Vaccinations required for public school kindergarten.
https://vaccines.procon.org/state-by-state-vaccinations-required-for-public-school-
kindergarten/