[John Kilduff]

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Hey Nate, should I be free to fill my front yard with raw sewage?

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?????????

natedogg

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Vaccinations, just like public sewage, are a public health issue with possibly large negative externalities. Thus it would fall under the umbrella of public policy. Vaccinations would be "mandatory" because of the effect of certain illnesses/disease on the other kids/society.

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Raw sewage is something that can negatively affect anyone who somehow comes into contact with it, and you can't build up an immunity against it (I think? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] ) or be vaccinated against it. So there is some relevant difference between exposure to raw sewage, and exposure to certain bacteria or viruses which can be immunized against.

Someone already immunized against a virus usaually need not fear further exposure to that virus, so kids already immunized (by their parents' choice) need not fear coming into contact with non-immunized children, or with carriers.

I think there is also a big difference beteen immunization against truly dread diseases, and immunization against lesser diseases like chicken pox, or typical flus.

I can sort of see forcing people to be immunized against a serious outbreak of something like the Black Death, the ravages of which killed a third of Europe's population in the 12th century; but I don't think chicken pox falls into such a category, nor do I think that forced immunizations for chicken pox are morally justified on grounds of safety to the public health. The threat to the public health from chicken pox is far from dire and pandemic.

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Under this logic, it would be hard to make the jump into other mandated medical procedures, since vaccinations fall into their own category.

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Vaccinations do fall into their own category in some respects - but government, once given powers, seldom relinquishes powers or scopes, and usually expands them. So I think fear of slippery slopes is generally well-founded in such matters.

I say, save coercion for only the most dire and catastrophic of scenarios, where non-immunization poses a grave risk to everyone. If a terrible strain of Ebola were somehow to be introduced in this country in fast-spreading and extremely contagious form, and quarantine was insufficient, that might be such a scenario.