America's New Vaccine Wars: California and the Politics of Mandates (Hardcover)

This book traces the history, politics, and ethics of mandatory childhood vaccination policy in America, with close attention to recent legislative changes in California. California was the first US state to ban unvaccinated children from school in response to parents refusing vaccines. The new policy kick-started immunization rates, but also ignited polarizing debates about whether government should restrict people's liberty to promote public health. Other US states, and other countries, are watching California carefully: should they follow in its footsteps? Using original interviews with politicians, activists, technical experts, and civil society organization representatives, Mark C. Navin and Katie Attwell unpack the causes and consequences of cracking down on vaccine refusal in contemporary America.

Bioethicist Mark Navin and policy scholar Katie Attwell explore the evolution of American childhood vaccination policy through the prism of political history, contemporary parenthood, and diverse governance strategies. America's New Vaccine Wars focuses on the origins and the outcomes of America's recent efforts to eliminate nonmedical exemptions to school and daycare vaccine mandates. These policy developments have increased immunization rates, but they have also ignited polarizing, nationwide debates about parents' rights, democracy, and the authority of the government to use coercion to promote health. This book explores the meaning of these battles for parents, doctors, the politics of public health, and the future of bioethics. Navin and Attwell ground the book with a case study of California's efforts to exclude unvaccinated children from school and daycare following the Disneyland Measles Outbreak of 2014. The authors use original interviews with key policymakers and activists to explain the development and execution of California's new vaccination policies, and they connect California's immunization policy developments to similar efforts across America and in other countries. America's New Vaccine Wars is a story about how political and community actors fought to exclude unvaccinated children from school in the face of significant opposition and failing public health institutions. The book unpacks the meaning and impact of these efforts for broader debates about America's immunization governance, including conflicts about coercive public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.