The anti-vax crowd is really an anti-science religion. It’s 100% based on faith, not fact. And it’s time to stop indulging stupid.
Vaccination is about public health, and everyone should have to be vaccinated – unless a qualified doctor says otherwise. If you refuse to vaccinate then you should not be allowed out in public. Your right to not vaccinate ends the second you go outside… perhaps to Disneyland?
And people who vaccinate are getting upset with the public health hazards known as anti-vaxxers. Their right to not vaccinate ends the second their irresponsible decision impacts (infects) others. This isn’t about personal choice. You want to feed your kid a vegan diet? Fine. You want to not vaccinate your kid and then send them to school, take them to the doctor’s office, go to Disneyland? Not fine.
This example shows how we do this very thing when it comes to drunk driving.
Take drunk driving.
People may have their own beliefs around how and when they drink alcohol – but once they run the risk of harming others, it really is in the state’s interest to start legislating rules. How different is that from a preventable outbreak?
“If you choose not to vaccinate your child, and your child infects mine and harms or kills them, I believe you ought be held liable for your choice just as we would do for a drunk driver,” Caplan argued.
Your choice. Your responsibility.
And I’m reaching the point where, if an infant (one too young to vaccinate), or an immunosuppressed person, or a vaccinated person whose vaccination didn’t take comes down with the measles then they should be able to sue. Because I’m not sure what else will get through to these anti-vaxxers. Lord knows, facts don’t.
Brendan Nyhan, an excellent political scientist at Dartmouth University, has done pathbreaking research into convincing anti-vaxxers to back off their flawed ideas.
His team’s disturbing findings: Trying to educate anti-vaccine parents only forces them to retreat further into their shell. Attempting to correct false beliefs about vaccines “may be especially likely to be counterproductive,” Nyhan dryly notes.
For instance, “when [researchers] gave evidence that vaccines aren’t linked to autism, that actually made parents who were already skittish about vaccines less likely to get their child one in the future,” Dr. Aaron Carroll writes at The Incidental Economist, summarizing Nyhan’s research. “When they told a dramatic story about an infant in danger because he wasn’t immunized, it increased parents’ beliefs that vaccines had serious side effects.”
“Basically, it was all depressing.”
This is why the anti-vaccination movement is a religion. They are exactly like climate change deniers – long on beliefs, zero facts. So what can we do to protect ourselves? Well…
So talking to anti-vaxxers might not work. Public shame might not work. What might?
Turn to the law.
“The real goal [of our paper] — and this is so often difficult in public health — is to utilize the law to affect the right public health changes,” Nicholas Diamond said.
“Basic tort law or criminal law can both be tools to affect positive public health changes.”
Another way to put that: What might encourage some parents to finally get over their fear of vaccines?
Fear of lawsuits.
Sad, but true. And this case is striking:
A California woman said anti-vaxxers endangered her baby’s life and forced the 6-month-old girl into a month-long quarantine.
Jennifer Simon took her daughter, Livia, to the doctor Jan. 2 because she had a cold, and the pediatrician’s office called two days later to report that an unvaccinated child with measles had been there the same day.
[…]
She was ordered into a 28-day quarantine in case she became the 53rd person to contract measles in connection with the Disneyland outbreak.
Eight other infants are in quarantine in Alameda County, where Simon lives.
Simon said she was angry that her child’s life was endangered because of another parent’s “personal choice.”
“Their choice endangered my child,” she said.
28 eight days. This couple missed work and had to fly her mother in to take care of the infant. Who should pay for that? If I were having children today my first question to a pediatrician (before I stepped into their office) would be… Do you treat unvaccinated patients? If their answer was “yes” I wouldn’t use them.
And here’s the big question: “What happens if a child dies because some parents decided not to vaccinate their own kid?” Good question, because it’s only a matter of time.