More on the principle of compulsory vaccination

In response to my recent post about compulsory vaccination I have been told to put myself in the shoes of those who are terrified of vaccinations, that freedom is a primal urge and that I am throwing away our freethinking liberation from religion because I support compulsory vaccination.

Of course, just because someone is terrified of vaccines doesn't make their beliefs any less irrational, in fact it just highlights how irrational they are; and freedom is indeed a primal urge, it is just I support the right of all members of society not to die of preventable disease over the right of a few irrational people to not vaccinate. All this goes back to the discussion I had about the fact there are competing rights and you sometimes have to choose which are more important. The freedom to choose which rights are more important, when it comes to matters of public health such as vaccination, should be conferred to the government and healthcare regulators. Why? Because they are the people who run the healthcare system, they are educated and qualified in those areas. Lunatic anti-vaccinationists are not. It is all very well for people to talk about their freedom if they want to drive on the wrong side of the road, but that kills people, which is why we make them drive on the same side as everyone else. Not vaccinating also kills people, so ultimately what is the difference?

Everyone seems to agree that it is wrong for a smoker to be amongst non-smokers while they are smoking because it unfairly puts non-smokers at risk. So smokers are isolated while they engage in that behaviour and this it seems is socially acceptable. Yet anti-vaccinationists walk among us all in society, the potential for disease transmission is always there. Of course, we try to protect children by requiring vaccination for school entry and by placing unvaccinated children in different classes to the minimise risk of transmission. The reality is that regulating a bahaviour such as smoking is much easier than regulating individual movements; even unvaccinated children placed in different classes still interact during lunch breaks for example; and once such people become adults regulating their movements becomes near impossible. The problem is worsened by the fact that anti-vaccinationists tend to congregate and belong to the same circle of family and friends. One can only imagine what would have happened were there a measles outbreak at the Woodford Folk Festival.

It seems to me that the banner of freethinking is being held high when one rebukes irrational and dangerous beliefs, whether they be religious or not; and make no mistake, anti-vaccinationists are irrational, dangerous people. Their actions result in disease outbreaks and the death of innocent people. If they really do think that vaccines are part of some Big Brother conspiracy then they should be ignored as every other lunatic conpiracy theorist is; and yes if they actually are insane as these people often are they should be committed and get the medical attention they need. If they would indeed act out violently against compulsory vaccination as the commenter suggests then they need to be locked up. However, I think such fears are exaggerated. Compulsory vaccination exists to the extent I proposed previously (click here) already in Italy and they seem to be doing just fine. Italy is no utopia and yet compulsory vaccination has been proven to work there. Frankly, we should be embarrassed that a country as religious as Italy has the sense to have compulsory vaccinations and we don't. I believe it can work here too.
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