With the Covid Vaccine becoming part of the vaccine schedule, it is now more important than ever to advocate for philosophical and religious vaccine exemptions. This Oxford article on public health ethics is a great rebuttal to the left-wing media’s attack on these exemptions and their support for what this article calls “eliminationism” of these vaccine exemptions. The article advocates for more steps to obtain philosophical and religious vaccine exemptions rather than eliminating them, showing that states like Michigan that added more steps to obtain these exemptions lowered their exemption rates while preserving citizens fundamental liberties. This is a segment from the article:
“Michigan’s experience in 2015 was consistent with research on the efficacy of more burdensome exemption policies. The number of new nonmedical vaccine waivers in Michigan fell dramatically in 2015—down 39 per cent statewide compared with 2014 (Higgins, 2016). In some areas of the state, such as Detroit, waiver rates fell by over 60 per cent. Michigan achieved this striking decline in waiver rates without taking on the liabilities of either Eliminationism or Prioritizing Religion, which is the chief reason to prefer Inconvenience: it decreases waiver rates without the disadvantages of other kinds of reforms. We ought to prefer methods of decreasing waiver rates that preserve liberties, promote fairness and minimize coercion, over methods of decreasing waiver rates that lack these virtues.”
I recently wrote about which states have these vaccine exemptions and which ones do not called Parental Rights and Informed Consent in Schools by State.
Read More on Public Health Ethics:
Improving Nonmedical Vaccine Exemption Policies: Three Case Studies
