Libertarianism and collective action: is there a libertarian case for mandatory vaccination?

Abstract

In his paper 'A libertarian case for mandatory vaccination', Jason Brennan argues that even libertarians, who are very averse to coercive measures, should support mandatory vaccination to combat the harmful disease outbreaks that can be caused by non-vaccination. He argues that libertarians should accept the clean hands principle, which would justify mandatory vaccination. The principle states that there is a (sometimes enforceable) moral obligation not to participate in collectively harmful activities. Once libertarians accept the principle, they will be compelled to support mandatory vaccination. In my paper, I argue that the cases Brennan uses to justify this principle are disanalogous to the case of non-vaccination and that they are not compelling to libertarians. The cases Brennan offers can be explained by a libertarian using the individual sufficiency principle: which states that if an individual's action is sufficient to cause harm, then there is a (sometimes enforceable) moral obligation not to carry out that action. I argue that this principle is more appropriate to Brennan's examples, and more appealing to the libertarian, than the clean hands principle. In order to get libertarians to accept the clean hands principle, I present a modified version of one of Brennan's cases that is analogous to the case of non-vaccination. Using this case, I argue that whether the clean hands principle will justify mandatory vaccination is dependent on whether the herd immunity rate in a given population is approaching a threshold after which a collective risk of harm will be imposed onto others.

Attitudes on voluntary and mandatory vaccination against COVID-19: Evidence from Germany

“…[17]) would reject a paternalist legal obligation to protect oneself through vaccination, they plausibly would favor a policy of mandatory vaccination in the case of COVID-19 to protect others from being harmed. In modern philosophical discussions, even some libertarians are in favor of mandatory vaccination against serious diseases for similar reasons (see [18] and for an overview [19]).…”

Vaccine Refusal and What to Do About It: a Systematic Review of the Ethical Literature

“…Those justifying vaccine refusal in certain circumstances argue that in settings where there is a high level of herd immunity, the risk posed by an unvaccinated child is not great enough to override respect for parental autonomy (62,65,94,98), and that the bene ts of community protection do not justify the individual risk posed by the vaccine and borne by the child who is already protected through herd immunity (72, 96,97,17,93,108). Perspectives of non-vaccinators echo these ideas by asserting that some diseases are not harmful enough to proscribe vaccine refusal (14) and that vaccine injury contributes to and justi es refusal (16).…”

Does Libertarianism Provide a Justification for Vaccine Hesitancy?

“…10 A similar position is also broadly supported by Charlie T. Blunden in 'Libertarianism and collective action: is there a case for mandatory vaccination?'. 11 Vaccine refusers, they say, violate the principle of non-aggression. Despite these differences, all right-libertarians agree that it is an empirical matter whether a vaccine programme is unacceptable social welfare or a channel for acceptable nonaggression.…”