By your reasoning, it's acceptable to violate personal autonomy if a person's job (e.g., in healthcare) puts patients at risk. I agree. But if someone who's not in that category refuses vaccination, they pose a risk to people they come in contact with. Vaccine mandates have a longstanding history of acceptance in the United States under the premise that they are for the greater public good. Here's what the ACLU said in 2021:
Vaccines are a justifiable intrusion on autonomy and bodily integrity. That may sound ominous, because we all have the fundamental right to bodily integrity and to make our own health care decisions. But these rights are not absolute. They do not include the right to inflict harm on others.
The problem this time around is the flood of disinformation regarding vaccine safety and efficacy, fueled by social media. But if someone truly can't be vaccinated or is adamantly opposed for some reason, they should be required to take measures to protect others, such as masking and avoiding contact in public.
I agree there is a ton of misinformation about vaccines and pharmaceuticals (and non-pharmaceuticals) which has existed forever but indeed the internet and social media have it made it much worse. And a lack of trust in the healthcare system and healthcare authorities- an absolutely huge problem with many causes.
I would argue healthcare providers have a higher level of ethical obligation to be vaccinated so as not to harm their patients (or become harmed to inhibit their ability to help others, particularly in a pandemic). People in the military agree to give up some of their rights/autonomy in joining.
Again, I believe everyone should be vaccinated who can be vaccinated for the recommended diseases. Vaccines are perhaps the greatest healthcare tool ever created and have radically reshaped history. But if the determining factor for healthcare mandates is what’s best for the greater public, there could be a lot of mandatory healthcare interventions (or lack thereof) you may not be happy with. Would you agree with society locking people inside their homes if they have any communicable disease, until they recovery? What about people with AIDS? The extreme end (for the sake of illustration) of this would be if you’re cost to the healthcare system is greater than your value to society, then you are not worth receiving healthcare. That way more resources can be allocated to others who are “higher value” members of society, as that’s in society’s best interest.
Before COVID and actually still even today I have never heard of people suggesting mandating the flu vaccines, despite the flu being far more deadly in children.
Most people I’ve come across (as someone in healthcare) don’t refuse vaccinations just for the sake of it. Most have (in their perception) legitimate concerns about the safety of vaccines and yes, a lot of these stem from misinformation or misinterpretations or a lack of knowledge. It also comes from a lack of trust- which there are many reasons for, many self-inflicted by the healthcare industry and authorities. If healthcare providers actually have the time and ability to communicate with patients, listen to their concerns, earn their trust, etc, it works wonders in convincing them to reconsider. Unfortunately that time and access for intimate communication and often does not exist in modern healthcare.
I just find it very interesting how polarized this country became about vaccines and yet now the rate of pediatric vaccinations (despite being available for quite some time across all age groups) and bivalent boosters is quite low. The anti-vax demographics have interestingly shuffled around before and during COVID, but now it seems we have hesitancy/ambivalence across much of the population, as seen in statistics.
I do think it’s hard to convince many parents to vaccinate their children when the risk to children is so low. And with some evidence that these vaccines are not great at preventing transmission (a far more complex conversation affected by numerous factors), there is even less incentive to do so. And I suspect that’s why we’re seeing less boosters in adults as well.
I think we have a lot of lessons to learn about public health and especially healthcare communication considering how COVID-19 was handled in this country. I never imagined things could become this political over vaccines. I think it’s vital we understand how public health communication can be improved. Sadly, reflection of what worked and what didn’t during the earlier phases of the pandemic often just turns into political bickering. If the House (republicans) do a COVID investigation it will surely have ulterior motives, be political theater not focused on improving things, and all the findings (including ones that may actually merit) will not be accepted by half the country.
There should be a serious, non-partisan investigation run by a body of actual experts with minimal conflicts of interest (which is extremely difficult in some aspects of this case). We were very lucky COVID wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been with a relatively low case fatality rate (as opposed to something like Ebola).
www.theguardian.com
arstechnica.com
apnews.com
www.nytimes.com
www.pbs.org
jamanetwork.com
