TY - JOUR
T1 - Stopping the resurgence of vaccine-preventable childhood diseases
T2 - Policy, politics, and law
AU - Levin, Hillel Y.
AU - Kershner, Stacie Patrice
AU - Lytton, Timothy D.
AU - Salmon, Daniel
AU - Omer, Saad B.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 University of Illinois College of Law. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Mandatory vaccination programs in the United States are generally successful, but their continued success is under threat. The ever-increasing number of parents who opt their children out of vaccination recommendations has caused severe outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Public health advocates have pushed for changes to state laws, but their efforts have generally been unsuccessful. We suggest that their lack of success is due to public health advocates' failures to contend with the features of the political system that impede change and to propose reforms that are ethically defensible, efficacious, and politically feasible. Based on our earlier public health studies, ethical concerns, and our analysis of the political environment, we suggest that states consider “nudging” hesitant parents to vaccinate their children by marginally raising the costs of nonvaccination. We also offer a comprehensive model law that would implement these changes.
AB - Mandatory vaccination programs in the United States are generally successful, but their continued success is under threat. The ever-increasing number of parents who opt their children out of vaccination recommendations has caused severe outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. Public health advocates have pushed for changes to state laws, but their efforts have generally been unsuccessful. We suggest that their lack of success is due to public health advocates' failures to contend with the features of the political system that impede change and to propose reforms that are ethically defensible, efficacious, and politically feasible. Based on our earlier public health studies, ethical concerns, and our analysis of the political environment, we suggest that states consider “nudging” hesitant parents to vaccinate their children by marginally raising the costs of nonvaccination. We also offer a comprehensive model law that would implement these changes.
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M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85082512345
SN - 0276-9948
VL - 2020
SP - 233
EP - 272
JO - University of Illinois Law Review
JF - University of Illinois Law Review
IS - 1
ER -