Anti-vaccine people should be fined $5,000
The measles outbreak that originated at Disneyland has sparked a lot of much needed discussion about the rights of parents with irrational fears and their ability to put everyone at risk of serious illness and death. Surprisingly even some far-right Republicans such as Ben Carson, a US President aspirant, are taking sensible stances on vaccination:
Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society.
Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country and we should not allow those diseases to return by foregoing safe immunization programs, for philosophical, religious, or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them
As someone said in response to that TPM article:
It’s a sad state for the GOP when a Republican says something obvious and common sense – and it’s considered newsworthy.
This weeks episode of Point of Inquiry featured Dr. Paul Offit in a discussion of the anti-vaccine movement. I didn’t hear anything I didn’t already know from a decade of reading about that movement. But by the end of the interview I had a strong desire to see every anti-vaccine proponent (e.g., Jenny McCarthy) sued into a state of poverty. However, this article at Talking Points Memo by Amanda Marcotte suggests a possibly more effective mechanism:
Considering that anti-vaccination is primarily a matter of elite people showing off their elite status through anti-vaccination, the fine can’t be small or they’ll just see it as the price of doing business. Perhaps $5,000, per kid, per year the kids aren’t vaccinated.