Pandemic Bioethics by Gregory Pence

Author:Gregory Pence [Pence, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Broadview Press
Published: 2021-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

MANDATORY VACCINATIONS

Mandatory Vaccination as Government Policy

If the greater good justifies human challenge trials, might it also justify mandatory vaccination of healthy adults? Three professors from law, medicine, and bioethics at Case Western Reserve University championed mandatory vaccination in the United States, arguing that national herd immunity could only be achieved this way.73 They would deny religious objections to vaccination, stating that “the major religions do not oppose vaccinations,” and would deny personal objections because such objections “violate the social contract.” To get high vaccination rates, they think governments should refuse tax credits and some government benefits to vaccine refusers. Health insurers should charge them higher premiums. Schools should not admit unvaccinated children. What about citizens who travel or work in different places? These same professors propose a national “certification card” with an expiration date for everyone in the country, whether “here legally or not.” As in China, without vaccination or an “immunity passport,” North Americans couldn’t fly, take a train, or ride a bus. Although the authors know their proposals might seem draconian, they conclude that the alternative, a sustained pandemic, is unacceptable.

Is this really possible? In a country where many people resist even wearing a mask? Invasion by the state of one’s body is an ethical line that many hope will rarely be crossed, and being required by the state to inject an unknown substance into your body is a violation that could be justified only by a much greater, compensating good. What would constitute that greater, compensating good? First, the vaccine would need to be highly effective, such that one dose conferred a high degree of immunity for one or two years. Second, the vaccine would need to be very safe, having been tested on every ethnic group, gender, and age, and then found to have no harm. But what if, like the vaccine for Dengue fever, it made some people worse off? If that were true, mandatory vaccination would be hard to justify.

But don’t we vaccinate all children?74 The justification for doing so is utilitarian: vaccinating every child protects not only the child but other children in the community as well. Mandatory vaccination of children, say against measles, creates herd immunity, protecting vulnerable children with compromised immune systems who cannot get vaccines. Such a justification is rational and altruistic, but not every parent is rational and altruistic, so some parents refuse to vaccinate their children. Also, what is true for children is not necessarily true for adults. Mandatory vaccination of adults might create resistance in them, such as active rebellion against local ordinances and taking active measures to avoid vaccination. As a result, requiring vaccination might actually lead to lower rates of vaccination in populations such as France, where people are already deeply skeptical of vaccines. Covid hits African Americans especially hard, so they are prime candidates for a good vaccine, but many African Americans do not trust the federal government when it comes to medical research.75 Wouldn’t forcing them to take vaccines against their will be

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