[btowngar]

Helps with herd immunity.

For example, Rubella is a vaccine commonly given to kids, but it is isn't really a severe disease even if kids catch it. If a pregnant woman contracts Rubella in her first trimester however, it can lead to severe complications for the unborn child. Just vaccinating women of child bearing age against Rubella works a little, but vaccinating kids as well means that that transmission vector is removed, and really improves the overall outcome.

[tengbretson]

> Helps with herd immunity

That is true and it's a good thing in it's own right, but it's orthogonal to the responsibility a doctor has to their patient first and foremost.

[xref]

your faulty line of logic, that you can’t both serve an individual and a group, just condemned most vaccines. Why bother giving kids a chicken pox vaccine when the infection is usually mild for them. Or from the GP, why give them rubella vaccine when it mainly hurts pregnant women.

[loudtieblahblah]

I think the big argument here is: Is doling out medical advice to an individual to protect the group ethical? Or should the medical advice for the individual be directed at the potential outcomes for the individual.

This conversation of individual vs communal rights is much simpler when we tell smokers they should keep it to designated areas or their private property.

It's a bit of a different animal when we're essentially encouraging and coercing people into taking potentially unnecessary medication for OTHER people's benefit.

It's not an easy question, if you're being intellectually honest. People who are hardliners on one side or the other on this debate, i feel aren't honest about the problems this poses. They're so wrapped up in their side of the individualism/tribialism or collective-safety/freedom dynamic, that they're not giving the other side a fair look.

This is a problem that plague the human species. Our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. Both our nature as collective/tribal animals, but with a deep since of contradictory individualism leads us to success and survival and wellness, but both of those aspects of us lead to great tyranny.

it's the communism vs capitalism debate - both sides have tons of blood on their hands. Tons of oppression too.

It's the debate played out between Kirk and Spock about the needs of the one vs the many.

And it's an honest, real debate that i don't feel will ever be solved because of the myriad of ways it plays out in a complex society.

[hartator]

> Helps with herd immunity.

It's highly probable that it helps but I thought we don't have the data proving it yet?