Stuart K. Hayashi
I
think that people are trying to make vaccination a binary issue, where either
we have command-and-control mandates that everyone be vaccinated, or
the State leaves people be free to avoid vaccination and thus contribute to the risk of
spreading measles. I think that there can be an individualist solution
-- for individuals to be held civilly liable for transmitting
particularly dangerous communicable diseases.
Let's
suppose I refuse to let everyone in my household be vaccinated for
measles. Then I contract measles and transmit it to you. That would be
an inadvertent initiation of the use of force, comparable to what
would happen if I drove recklessly and accidentally hit you with my
car. Therefore, you should be able to hold me civilly liable. You
should be able to sue me for damages, since the transmission of measles
is an accidental initiation of the use of force.
And
I think that a family choosing to vaccinate would be a legal
protection against such lawsuits. Under those circumstances, there
wouldn't be a command-and-control edict forcing everyone to be vaccinated, but individuals would still be incentivized to vaccinate.
