He Says: The So-Called Right Not to Vaccinate

We live in a culture where much of our political discussion takes place in terms of rights. This is particularly so here in the United States, where we have the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to life vs. the right to choose, the right to a good education, even the right to die. Maybe it’s because our founding document, the constitution, includes a bill of rights. Or maybe it’s because when we talk about rights our opposition is immediately on the defensive. Of course we don’t want to violate anyone’s rights.

But most rights aren’t major-league rights like free speech. Take water rights, for example. People have been fighting over water rights for thousands of years. If I run a grain mill using a water wheel to grind flour for the local farming community I’m going to be pretty upset when my mill wheel stops turning because there have been too many sunny days and you had to divert more water for irrigating your crops upstream. You and I both have a right to the water, but only one of us is going to get to do what we want to do. Sometimes it’s not a matter of what’s fair: someone is going to get screwed and all the law can do is decide who it’s going to be.

So what about vaccines? People who don’t want to vaccinate their children will often tell you that vaccines are not 100% effective: some small percentage of people simply don’t become immune after being vaccinated (take a look at http://www.immunizationinfo.org/parents/why-immunize; scroll down to the fourth question). They’re less likely to tell you that some people have medical conditions that mean that they can’t be vaccinated at all — medical conditions such as being an infant. People say this as if it were a criticism of vaccines, but what it really means is that a few kids out of every hundred that have been vaccinated are relying on those around them for protection from disease. This is what’s called herd immunity: if almost everyone in a community is immune to a disease the disease will not spread, so even those who are not immune on their own are safe. The best safety vaccines provide comes from herd immunity.

That makes this the kind of issue where you can’t make everyone happy. I believe in vaccines and I believe in the science behind them. I want the fullest protection the vaccine can provide for my children, which means that I want herd immunity. Say I have a friend (call him Joe) who doesn’t believe in vaccines. He says doctors believe that medicine can solve all the world’s problems and he doesn’t trust the medical establishment when it comes to deciding whether a drug (or a vaccine) is necessary. I respect Joe’s position, and sometimes I think he may even be half-right. But when it comes to vaccines I think he’s wrong.

It doesn’t matter who has the most or best evidence. By now people who care about the issue have heard what the other side has to say and it hasn’t convinced them. If it could be settled that way it would have been by now. But we don’t have the luxury of leaving the issue undecided. If Joe and I live in the same community we can’t both have our way. One of us is going to get screwed. Either Joe is going to be forced to have his kids vaccinated, or my children (especially if I have a newborn) are going to be forced to be at higher risk of getting potentially deadly diseases. If Joe decides not to vaccinate his children he’s not just deciding for himself, he’s deciding for me as well.

There are communities today (such as Ashland OR, see the recent Frontline episode on vaccines) where herd immunity has broken down because many parents have chosen not to immunize. These communities are at risk of outbreaks of diseases that most parents today have never seen. If an outbreak occurs children will die, and not just those whose parents chose not to immunize. Doing nothing means letting the decision be made by the minority who do not want to vaccinate.

As a citizen I want my community to require children to be immunized. But as a citizen I don’t always get my way. I can live with that. What makes me angry is when my choice is taken away because the decision isn’t made at all, when people refuse to accept that some decisions just aren’t about personal freedom. They’re about being part of a community, and being part of a community sometimes means sacrificing personal freedom.

[You can see my wife's take on this issue here.]