Personal Liberty vs. Vaccinations
As a measles outbreak spreads throughout the United States, some doctors are refusing to accept new patients that are unvaccinated. My belief stands with the simple fact that everyone ought to be entitled to health care, and quality healthcare at that. As practitioners who have taken the Hippocratic oath, doctors are bound in duty to think about the wellbeing of their patients first. But at the same time, even though doctors maintain the liberty to reject patients, they cannot put other patients in danger by exposing them to potential disease carriers.
Every person is entitled to their own personal beliefs regarding vaccination—that is, as long as their convictions do not clash with the well being of others, people should be allowed to exercise their First Amendment rights to whatever extent they deem necessary. However, just as every person is entitled to their personal beliefs, people have the right to feel safe in public places. This applies especially to virulent diseases, which impact the general health of society.
"However, just as every person is entitled to their personal beliefs, people have the right to feel safe in public places."
Some vaccines are not completely effective, such as the measles vaccine, which guarantees immunity 95 percent of the time. The unlucky five percent who are not immunized and those that cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons rely on herd immunity to remain protected. In outbreaks such as these, young children who cannot be vaccinated tend to be those that suffer the most consequences. Other people, such as those with cancer, also cannot be vaccinated since their compromised immune systems are put at heavy risk when surrounded by the unvaccinated. All of these people who are at risk of illness by no cause of their own rely on those around them being vaccinated to remain healthy.
Herd immunity works by reducing the number of disease carriers in a community, making it less likely that the disease could spread to others. By doing so, this protects everyone in the community, especially those that are more susceptible to disease than others.
While it is easy to say that vaccines are unnecessary because so many other people are vaccinated, this type of reasoning makes every person in any given community more vulnerable.
As members of communities, whether we like it or not, we have the power to affect the lives of those around us. By being unvaccinated while having the option to do so, people endanger the lives of those that could not be vaccinated and those that were not successfully immunized. While vaccines do not work all the time, they do protect a very large majority of people and help eradicate terrible and potentially deadly diseases. Doctors owe it to their patients to take every measure possible to protect them. For this reason, they should be allowed to take measures such as not accepting unvaccinated patients in order to protect the vulnerable members of our communities.