Vaccines are always a balance between a public health imperative and individual freedoms. The government has to MANDATE certain vaccines (i.e. to attend public school) because the risk of disability/death to one particular individual is so low that many will likely refuse the vaccine for themselves or their children. If too many refuse, an outbreak could be devastating to many. Generally, we vaccinate for the good of society, not for ourselves, because outbreaks of diseases with mandated vaccines are so infrequent. Covid certainly falls within the range of transmissibility and death/disability rates overall of other diseases that have mandated vaccines (but very low for the individual, so unsurprisingly many are refusing to be vaccinated) so I am interested to see if the vaccine will be mandated in more settings than cruise ships, colleges. Maybe elder care settings?
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