Jeffrey Miron
Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, recently announced that Florida would eliminate all childhood vaccine mandates, making shots for measles, chickenpox, hepatitis B, and more optional (although some changes would require legislative approval). In response to strong pushback, however, including from President Trump, Florida appears to be walking back at least some of this policy change. Still, Ladapo’s position raises an interesting question: what should libertarians think about government-mandated vaccines for school-age children?
On the one hand, unvaccinated people can transmit disease to others, so a mandate potentially fosters herd immunity and thereby improves health broadly. In economics lingo, getting vaccinated generates a beneficial externality, and private actions might undersupply such activities.
On the other hand, vaccine mandates interfere with parental decisions about their children’s health. Yet libertarians, and existing policy, give parents wide latitude with respect to similar issues involving minor children, such as when to impose or prevent medical care, whether to participate in contact sports or drive a car, and more.
Further, some mandates seem to generate backlash against vaccines and public health measures generally, making the net impact of mandates even less favorable.
In addition, mechanisms besides government mandates can partially address the externality from vaccination. Government or private groups can provide vaccines for free; private or public clinics can make getting the vaccine easy; and private or public information campaigns can encourage vaccination. In fact, these voluntary, low-cost methods are how the US initially achieved substantial success with its polio vaccination campaign. And in Libertarian Land, private schools would be free to require vaccination for their students, which might also nudge toward herd immunity.
Mandates for childhood vaccines have good intentions, and over the past several decades, vaccines appear to have produced enormous benefits. Yet mandates can also generate adverse effects, such as backlash and vaccine hesitancy. At a minimum, it might be informative to see what happens if one or more states repeal their vaccine mandates.
Cross-posted from Substack. Eric Jin, a student at Southridge School, co-wrote this post.