Funding the Costs of Disease Outbreaks Caused by Non-Vaccination

Chen S. Y. , “Health Care-associated Measles Outbreak in the United States after an Importation: Challenges and Economic Impact,” Journal of Infectious Disease 203, no. 11 (2011): 1517–1525; Sugerman D. , “Measles Outbreak in a Highly Vaccinated Population, San Diego, 2008: Role of the Intentionally Undervaccinated,” Pediatrics 125, no. 4 (2010): 747–755; Calugar A. , “Nosocomial Pertussis: Cost of an Outbreak and Benefits of Vaccinating Health Care Workers,” Clinical Infectious Diseases 42, no. 7 (2006): 981–988; Lee L. H. Pichichero M. E. , “Cost of Illness Due to Bordatella Pertussis in Families,” Archives of Family Medicine 9, no. 10 (2000): 989–996.

Van Panhuis W. G. , “Contagious Diseases in the United States from 1988 to the Present,” New England Journal of Medicine 369, no. 22 (2013): 2152–2158.

Salmon D. A. Moulton L. H. Omer S. B. deHart M. P. Stokley S. Halsey N. A. , “Factors Associated with Refusal of Childhood Vaccines among Parents of School-Aged Children,” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 159 (2005): 470–476.

Omer S. , “Nonmedical Exemptions to School Immunization Requirements: Secular Trends and Association of State Policies with Pertussis Incidence,” JAMA 296 (2006): 1757–1763; Omer S. , “Geographic Clustering of Nonmedical Exemptions to School Immunization Requirements and Associations with Geographic Clustering of Pertussis,” American Journal of Epidemiology 168 (2008): 1389–1396.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Update: Measles – United States, January – July 2008,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 57 (2008): 893–896; Ortega-Sanchez I. R. , “The Economic Burden of Sixteen Measles Outbreaks on United States Public Health Departments in 2011,” Vaccine 32 (2014): 1311–1317; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Pertussis Epidemic – Washington, 2012,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 61 (2012): 517–522.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Measles Cases in the United States Reach 20-Year High,” May 29, 2014, available at <http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0529-measles.html> (last visited September 15, 2015).

Feikin D. , “Individual and Community Risks of Measles and Pertussis Associated with Personal Exemptions to Immunization,” JAMA 284 (2000): 3145–3150; Von den Hof S. , “Measles Epidemic in the Netherlands: 1999–2000,” Journal of Infectious Disease 186 (2002): 1483–1486.

Lee Pichichero , supra note 1.

Babigumira J. B. , “Health Economics of Rubella: A Systematic Review to Assess the Value of Rubella Vaccination,” BMC Public Health 13 (2013): 406–418 (represented in 2014 U.S. dollars).

Shepard C. W. , “Cost-Effectiveness of Conjugate Meningococcal Vaccination Strategies in the United States,” Pediatrics 115 (2005): 1220–1232 (represented in 2014 U.S. dollars).

Ortega-Sanchez , supra note 5.

Parker A. , “Implications of a 2005 Measles Outbreak in Indiana for Sustained Elimination of Measles in the United States,” New England Journal of Medicine 355 (2006): 447–455.

See Table 1. For additional examples of exposures in a variety of contexts see also: Lasher L. , “Contacting Passengers After Exposure to Measles on an International Flight: Implications for Responding to New Disease Threats and Bioterrorism,” Public Health Reports 119 (2004): 458–463; Chen T. , “Measles Outbreak Associated with an International Youth Sporting Event in the United States, 2007,” Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 29 (2010): 794–800.

Chen , supra note 1.

Coleman M. S. , “Direct Costs of a Single Case of Refugee-Imported Measles in Kentucky,” Vaccine 30 (2012): 317–321. These numbers are available at: <http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2014USbt_15bs2n_10#usgs302> (last visited September 15, 2015).

U.S. Government Spending. 2014, available at <http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2014USbt_15bs2n_10#usgs302> (last visited September 15, 2015).

Trust for America's Health, Investing in America's Health: A State-by-State Look at Public Health Funding and Key Health Facts (April 2013), available at <http://healthyamericans.org/assets/files/TFAH2013InvstgAmrcsHlth05%20FINAL.pdf> (last visited September 15, 2015).

Ortega-Sanchez , supra note 5.

Osterholm M. , “Efficacy and Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccines: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” The Lancet Infectious Diseases 12 (2001): 36–44.

Zhou F. , “Economic Evaluation of the Routine Childhood Immunization Program in the United States, 2009,” Pediatrics 133 (2014): 1–9.

Pennsylvania v. Gen. Pub. Utils. Corp. , 710 F.2d 117, 122–23 (3d Cir. 1983).

Caplan A. L. , “Free to Choose But Liable for the Consequences: Should Non-Vaccinators Be Penalized for the Harm They Do?” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 40, no. 3 (2012): 606–611.

Kennedy A. M. , “Vaccine Beliefs of Parents Who Oppose Compulsory Vaccination,” Public Health Reports 120 (2005): 252–258.

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Offit P. Moser C. , Vaccines and Your Child: Separating Fact from Fiction (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011); Kata A. , “A Postmodern Pandora's Box: Anti-vaccination Misinformation on the Internet,” Vaccine 28(2010): 1709; Iannelli V. , “Anti Vaccine Myths and Misinformation,” Pediatrics.About.Com, January 17, 2015, available at <http://pediatrics.about.com/od/immunizations/tp/Anti-Vaccine-Myths-and-Misinformation.htm> (last visited September 15, 2015); Calandrillo S. , “Vanishing Vaccinations: Why Are So Many Americans Opting Out of Vaccinating Their Children,” University Michigan Journal of Law Reform 37 (2004): 353–440.

Offit P. , Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (New York: Basic Books, 2010): At 111–123.

Shorter v. Drury , 695 P.2d 116 (1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 827 (1985)).

Prince v. Massachusetts , 321 U.S. 158, 166–67 (1944).

Commonwealth v. Twitchell , 617 N.E.2d 609 (Mass. 1993); State v. Norman, 808 P.2d 1159 (Wash. App. 1991).

Vaughan v. Menlove , 132 Eng. Rep. 490 (C.P.) (1837) (“[W] hether the Defendant had acted honestly and bona fide to the best of his own judgment…would leave so vague a line as to afford no rule at all…[Because the judgments of individuals are…] as variable as the length of the foot of each…we ought rather to adhere to the rule which requires in all cases a regard to caution such as a man of ordinary prudence would observe”).

Reed v. Tacoma Ry. & Power Comp. , 188 P. 409 (Wash. 1921).

Wolfe R. Sharp L. , “Vaccination or Immunization? The Impact of Search Terms on the Internet,” Journal of Health Communication 10 (2005): 537–551.

Fine P. , “Herd Immunity: A Rough Guide,” Vaccines 52 (2011): 911–916.

Conis E. , “How the Poor Get Blamed for Disease,” The Atlantic, November 9, 2014, available at <http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/11/how-the-poor-get-blamed-for-disease/382338> (last visited September 15, 2015).

Reiss D. R. , “Compensating the Victims of Failure to Vaccinate: What Are the Options?” Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 23 (2014): 595–633.

Jacobson v. Massachusetts , 197 U.S. 11, 25–27 (1905).

Caplan , supra note 22; Reiss , supra note 35.

Parkins C. , “Protecting the Herd: A Public Health, Economics and Legal Argument for Taxing Parents Who Opt-Out of Mandatory Childhood Vaccinations,” Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 21 (2012): 437–490.

Lobel O. Amir O. , “Healthy Choices: Regulatory Design and Processing Modes of Health Decisions,” Social Science Research Network (2011), available at <http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1876734> (last visited September 15, 2015).

Zucht v. King , 260 U.S. 174 (1922).

Krauss M. I. , “Public Services Meet Private Law,” San Diego Law Review 44 (2005): 1–53; Lytton T. , “Should Government Be Allowed to Recover the Costs of Public Services from Tortfeasors?: Tort Subsidies, the Limits of Loss Spreading, and the Free Public Services Doctrine,” Tulane Law Review 76 (2002): 727–781.

Lytton , supra note 41.

32 American Law Reports 261 (6th ed.); Krauss , supra note 41.

See, e.g., Cincinnati v. Beretta U.S. A. Corp., 768 N.E.2d 1136 (Ohio 2002) (holding that a city's allegation that the negligent conduct of the handgun manufacturers, trade associations, and handgun distributor, relating to the manufacture and distribution of firearms, involved continuing misconduct and stated a claim for recoupment of costs of government services, such as police, emergency, health, corrections, and prosecution services under a public nuisance theory); California v. Atl. Richfield Co., 2014 WL 280526 (Cal. Super. 2014) (awarding damages in a lead paint case on a public nuisance theory).

E.g. Cal. Health & Saf. Code §13009 et seq., NRS 459.537 (2), (3) (Nevada), Alaska Stat. § 46.03.822.

Wash. Rev. Code Ann. § 76.04.495 (West 2014); Cal. Health & Saf. Code §13009 et seq. (West 2014); N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 106–947 (West 2014).

Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 459.537 (2), (3) (West 2014); Alaska Stat. Ann. § 46.03.822 (West 2014); N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 166A-27 (West 2014).

Cal. Civ. Code § 3479 (West 2014).

See, e.g., Sacramento, Cal., Health & Safety Code § 8.04.100 (2014), available at <http://qcode.us/codes/sacramento/> (last visited September 15, 2015).

Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 28–910 (West 2014).

N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 166A-19.62 (West 2014).

Caplan , supra note 22 and Reiss , supra note 35.