Vexing the Vaxers

Is there a vaccine for liberalism? I guess not. Maybe Big Pharma ought to get to work on one—or at least announce a research program for a cure for liberalism. Think of the comedy gold you’d get from the Left.

Not so funny is the growing anti-vax movement, which is mostly on the Left but finds a few adherents on the conspiratorial Right as well. (Maybe Big Pharma could disseminate the anti-liberalism vaccine from Chemtrails!) The recent news of a spreading measles outbreak originating in unvaccinated carriers of the virus at Disneyland lends new salience to this issue.

Of course there are risks from vaccinations, as there are with most medications these days. But the people who disdain vaccinations are putting everyone else at risks that are almost certainly much larger. Penn & Teller do a nice job of explaining the comparative risk assessment of vaccines in this short treatment (language warning):

Meanwhile, whatever became of Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the 1905 case that blessed mandatory vaccinations? I don’t care for state power of this dimension either, but the alternative would be requiring people to show their vaccination certificates for admission to Disneyland and other public places. I wonder how the Left would like that.

Liberalism Pill copy

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