Rick Perry, Republican governor of Texas, mandated the use of the HPV vaccine for girls.
personally, I would have had more respect for him if he stood by that decision instead of folding in the face of controversy.
i believe in mandated vaccines with an opt-out.
There are always outliers, and as you said he was forced to fold because his party as a whole came down on him for it.
Also, it doesn't sound like much of a mandate if you can opt out, especially since vaccines rely on community immunity. When you also factor in local immunization rates (i.e., in the daycares of conservative churches instead of averaging across the entire nation) it is easy to see why opt-outs result in outbreaks. It would be one thing if we could let natural selection weed out the dumbasses, but not only is that unfair to their children, their stupidity is getting other people killed and maimed.