You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: The effectiveness of Vaccines and Herd Immunity
I think that people should be free to do their own research and make informed decisions for themselves.
I think that's the crux of the problem. Because on the one hand we're pro-freedom, right? But on the other hand, vaccination is a social responsibility. It's much like smoking, in the sense that you may tout your freedom to smoke, but your behavior will cause passive smokers to get sick.
You might be right, however where do you stop removing peoples freedom for the pursuit of social responsibility? You could say that anything we do as free humans could have an impact on the rest of society but do we take those freedoms away? For example, similar to your smoking one, people drink alcohol. Is it socially responsible to drink to excess causing trouble for other people, putting pressure on police and hospital resources? No, but we wouldnt take away that freedom. My concern is that in the course of protecting social responsibility the state is able to dictate every last thing in peoples lives for better or for worse. And we will only realise what freedom we had once the last bit of it is taken away. I do believe that vaccines are generally good, but they are made by insidious companies who sell for their own gains, recommended by doctors who gain a commission and there is no effort to give honest pro and con advice to people. To me the process of advising to vaccinate people is failing because they treat the average person like an idiot - just do it because i say its best for you. Just my thoughts though :)
Well we do, as in 'driving while intoxicated'.
But yeah I get your point, it's a tough balance to strike: freedom vs responsibility to others. I think with good education, people will naturally do what's socially responsible, so as a society we ought to put education first.