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Evaluating vaccination policy
Vaccines as a positive externality 

The promotion of high levels of vaccination produces the protective effect of herd immunity, as well as positive externalities in society.

Vaccinations are public goods, they are both non-rivalrous and non-excludable , and given these traits, individuals may avoid the costs of vaccination by “free-riding” off the benefits of others being vaccinated. The costs and benefits to individuals and society have been studied and critiqued in stable and changing population designs. Other surveys have indicated that free-riding incentives exist in individual decisions and in a separate study that looked a parental vaccination choice, the study found that parents were less likely to vaccinate their children if their children’s friends had already been vaccinated. The free-rider problem inherent to vaccinations as a public good is important to public health policy makers when assessing policy options.

Cost-benefit analysis for population-level vaccination programs—United States

Since the first economic analysis of routine childhood immunizations in the United States in 2001 that reported cost savings over the lifetime of children born in 2001, other analyses of the economic costs and potential benefits to individuals and society have since been studied, evaluated, and calculated. In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a decision analysis that evaluated direct costs (program costs such as vaccine cost, administrative burden, negative vaccine-linked reactions, and transportation time lost to parents to seek health providers for vaccination). The study focused on diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Haemophilus influenza type b conjugate, poliovirus, measles/mumps/rubella (MMR), hepatitis B, varicella, 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate, hepatitis A, and rotavirus vaccines, but excluded influenza. Estimated costs and benefits were adjusted to 2009 dollars and projected over time at 3% annual interest rate. Of the theoretical group of 4,261,494 babies beginning in 2009, that had regular immunizations through childhood in accordance with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices guidelines “will prevent ∼42 000 early deaths and 20 million cases of disease, with net savings of $13.5 billion in direct costs and $68.8 billion in total societal costs, respectively.” In the United States, and in other nations , there is an economic incentive and "global value" to invest in preventive vaccination programs, especially in children as a means to prevent early infant and childhood deaths.