Throughout the years, children within the United States have been left unvaccinated even though the resources are available. These numbers have increased dramatically due to parents religious and philosophical beliefs as well as trying to rely on the concept of herd immunity. It was stated in an article published by the CNN library by an unknown author titled "Vaccine Fast Facts" that, "In 2011 the United States Public Health Service found that 63% of parents who refuse or delay their children's vaccines do so in fear of serious side effects" (Health Vaccine Fast Facts). Parents who chose to leave their child or even children unvaccinated put other children who are medically incapable or too young at risk for diseases that can be prevented with a vaccination. The only way to deal with these situations is to mandate child vaccines. Vaccinations should become compulsory throughout the United States to prevent needless death.
According to the Center for Disease Control there are currently twelve vaccines that are recommended to be given before the child reaches the age of six (CDC 2015). The CDC releases a lot of information regarding immunizations each year. The vaccinations schedule that showed the amount of vaccines was just recently re-published this year. These vaccinations are given to guard against or create an immunity to the following fourteen vaccine preventable diseases, Hepatitis B, Rotavirus (RV) which is contains a three dose series, Haemophilus Influenza type b (Hib), Pneumococcal conjugate, Pneumococcal polysaccharide, Inactivated Poliovirus, Influenza, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, which is combined into one vaccine (MMR), Varicella (chicken pox), Hepatitis A, and Meningococcal. In just one of these diseases, "[Diphtheria], the United States had two hundred and six thousand cases reported, over fifteen thousand of these cases resulted in death" (Diphtheria CDC 2014).