By Arthur Caplan
Art Caplan has a new piece at NBC News online arguing that the Rhode Island Department of Health is right to propose a new policy mandating that “all children between 6 months and 5 years of age would have to be vaccinated against the flu before entering daycare or preschool.” From the piece:
Not only is the ACLU inexcusably wrong about the value of flu vaccination for young children, it is way off the mark on the issue of liberty. The Rhode Island law is not about protecting kids. It is trying to prevent infected kids from killing or making other kids sick, especially those with asthma or immune diseases. It is trying to prevent killing grandma by infecting her, killing pregnant women’s fetuses or striking dead the neighbor who is getting chemotherapy or is post an organ-transplant who encounters an infected baby or child at the supermarket, train station or movie theater.
That is why the proposed policy lets parents opt out of vaccination for medical or religious reasons as long as they keep their kids at home during flu outbreaks. Surely, protecting the health of others by requiring them to be vaccinated or stay home can be justified by trying to prevent the 37 deaths of children who have already died from the flu this season. Their liberty is permanently over.
Read the full article here.
