The Lancet Infectious Diseases: The imperative of vaccination
Editorial Board

“Vaccination is one of the most effective public health interventions and it has been instrumental in saving lives and greatly changing the burden of many infectious diseases over the past 100 years. … Public health problems such as the surge in cases of vaccine-preventable diseases need to be addressed with strong interventions that maximize societal benefits; making vaccination mandatory, albeit temporarily, should not be seen as an infringement of personal rights. Nobody would rationally advocate for vaccination if there were alternatives or if scientific evidence showed that the risk of adverse events outweighed the protection against infectious diseases. But the reality is that vaccines are still one of the safest options to prevent infectious diseases and judgement should be based on facts, not unfounded fears” (November 2017).