Question for libertarians on forced vaccinations and herd immunity

[jkjsooner]

I've really curious about your views on required vaccinations and its role in herd immunity. In my opinion this scenario poses a unique challenge to the libertarian worldview.

Considering the following facts:

1. Not everyone in society are healthy enough to receive vaccinations.
2. Vaccinations are not 100% effective.
3. Vaccinations serve a dual purpose - to protect individuals directly due to ones own vaccination and to protect individuals due to the herd immunity of the population.

Let's take a couple of scenarios:

A. You are the only person in the community who is vaccinated.
B. You are the only person in the community who is not vaccinated.

It may or may not be surprising that under certain circumstances you are at a higher risk in scenario A than scenario B. In scenario A there is not a sufficent herd immunity and the disease will spread throughout the population. You are at risk because your vaccination might not have been completely effective. In scenario B you are absolutely at risk if you come in contact with an affected person but because of herd immunity it is very unlikely that this will occur.


Now, taking all of this into consideration, is it appropriate for society to require some vaccinations for public health reasons? Is it within the role of the government to balance the rights of the public at large with the rights of the individual?

[SicEmBaylor]

I have mixed feelings on this as well. I have a lot of libertarian friends who are adamantly opposed to vaccinations. My dad is a doctor, so my perspective on it is quite a bit different than theirs. Most of their issues with vaccinations are the unproven and unsubstantiated claims that vaccinations can cause certain disorders (especially in children). I think most of that is nonsense.

I have a lot of libertarian leanings, and I would certainly support and love to see more libertarians elected to office. I would easily trade off the alternatives with libertarians even when they're wrong. HOWEVER, strictly speaking, I am not a strict libertarian. I don't even technically consider myself a libertarian -- I'm a pelocon but that is awfully close on most issues.

I believe it's very very important to get a vaccination. Whether the state should force someone to get a vaccination is another matter, but I lean slightly in favor of it. It is a public health issue, but on the other hand the only people who would be affected by not having a vaccination are the people who chose not to get a vaccination therefore it's their fault if they wind up sick and die.

[olevetonahill]

Whats to ask?
IF ya want to live in a crowd then get Vaccinated
IF ya want to live alone then Tell em to **** off dip ****s

[Sooner5030]

Not a big fan of the "forced" part. I can understand the fact that your kid can't enroll at X school if not up to date with vaccines. But I'm against the State requiring a person to have something injected into their bodies against their will.

[jkjsooner]

I have mixed feelings on this as well. I have a lot of libertarian friends who are adamantly opposed to vaccinations. My dad is a doctor, so my perspective on it is quite a bit different than theirs. Most of their issues with vaccinations are the unproven and unsubstantiated claims that vaccinations can cause certain disorders (especially in children). I think most of that is nonsense.

I have a lot of libertarian leanings, and I would certainly support and love to see more libertarians elected to office. I would easily trade off the alternatives with libertarians even when they're wrong. HOWEVER, strictly speaking, I am not a strict libertarian. I don't even technically consider myself a libertarian -- I'm a pelocon but that is awfully close on most issues.

I believe it's very very important to get a vaccination. Whether the state should force someone to get a vaccination is another matter, but I lean slightly in favor of it. It is a public health issue, but on the other hand the only people who would be affected by not having a vaccination are the people who chose not to get a vaccination therefore it's their fault if they wind up sick and die.

I enjoyed your response. I would disagree with your last sentence because 1) vaccinations are not 100% effective and 2) some people cannot get vaccinated. But that's a minor point.


As for the claims that is causes certain disorders - namely autism - I think I have an interesting perspective that brings out our own internal biases. For years I argued tht these claims were not backed up by scientific evidence. (I still agree with this.) Then, my child seemed to stop progressing in his speech. He literally was saying "hi daddy" at 1 year and then at 2 years his vocabulary had increased but not near what is expected and I don't think he would have said "hi daddy" then. Of course we started worrying and when you worry you see warning signs everywhere. Now at 2 1/2 he's starting to catch up and his behavior seems completely normal. (We also just had tubes put in his ears recently.) Anyway, I did find myself being much more sympathetic towards those who claim that vaccinations cause autism and actually feeling a little guilty that I chose to vaccinate.

Hypocritical, yeah I think a little.