Professor Max Mehlman, director of the Law-Medicine Center, recently co-authored an article in the Pathogens and Immunity journal with Dr. Michael Lederman, titled, “Compulsory Immunization Protects Against Infection: What Law and Society Can Do.”
The article examines potential legal remedies to counter the public health effects of the growing anti-vaccination social and legal movement, which has decreased immunization coverage in many regions and exacerbated epidemic outbreaks of serious transmissible diseases – most particularly measles.
The article concludes:
“As the risk of infection diminishes with greater public compliance with immunization policies, compulsory immunization programs are rendered both necessary for the public health and vulnerable to complaint by individuals who demand preferential protection from risk. Society should develop and apply effective strategies to counter the misinformation that is widespread on the internet and given credibility by those reluctant to be immunized. Society through legal precedent and civil incentives should promote compulsory immunization programs with only limited exemptions for persons with medical contraindications to a vaccine.”