Should Anti-Vaxxers be Arrested?

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I am curious about those that cannot be vaccinated? Some children for one reason or another cannot get vaccines. What do you think of them? They relie heavily on herd immunity. Do they count as anti vaxxer?

If they can't get vaccinated, they are not anti-vaxxers on the basis merely of that.

When I’ve heard autistics in other settings getting angry about the topic of vaccinations and people’s choice about them, it’s always struck me that the anger isn’t about vaccines, but about autism and acceptance. Why otherwise should vaccines specifically matter so much to those of us who are autistic? Some parents may want to avoid the risk of vaccine harm to their children and some believe that vaccines, among other environmental factors, can trigger autism. Whether there’s a relationship or not, autism isn’t something most parents want for their children and when they have an autistic child, they are often devastated – my own parents were when my autism became apparent. That lack of acceptance by our parents for our being different can be profoundly painful and damaging – it devastated me personally. It burns me so much that I have trouble ever reading parents’ accounts of how challenging it is to raise an autistic child. I guarantee that it’s a hundred times harder for that child than it is for their parents. I was told many times that I “destroyed” my mother’s life with no sympathy for what I went through and still go through. I’m not greatly affected one way or the other by other people’s choice to vaccinate their kids, and so it doesn’t have a great emotional impact on me. The rate of harm from contagious disease as well as the rate of harm from vaccine injury are both small here in the US. However I was greatly affected by my own parents’ attitude about my autism and that had a huge emotional impact that lasts to today, and I’m 60 years old. I don’t think vaccines are the real hot issue for those of us with autism, I think it’s parents treating autism as the end of the world and the affected child as a “problem” that should be avoided. In my own family, my brother wasn’t autistic, was a very healthy body-builder, and was on active duty in the US Navy. He was ordered to get the swine flu vaccine back when it was mandatory during the Carter presidency. He was one of a small fraction of those who received the vaccine who had an adverse reaction and he immediately developed long-term grand mal epilepsy. He was medically discharged from the Navy and not long after that his wife divorced him because she couldn’t handle his epilepsy and him being unemployed and she moved to a different state with their son. He couldn’t hold a job with his seizures and for a long time couldn’t drive. He was just one person who was harmed by the vaccine, but he was my brother. He died young, at age 54. I feel for him especially because I know what it’s like to be different and challenged in a society that most of the time doesn’t care about us.

What is the percentage risk of the following scenario happening: Said parent does not allow their child to be vaccinated. Said child catches measles. Said child spreads measles to another individual that has a compromised immune system causing them serious injury or death.

The chance for that is so very slim. I cannot agree to initiate force on so many people for such a small risk. If there is a case by case basis where you could show that active exposure of an immune-compromised individual to another infected individual caused the issue, then you could legally pursue something, but to rob an individual of their right to refuse treatment? Why stop there? Why stop at vaccines? Why not just start sterilizing individuals due to genetic defects in their code? Because that's the point we're at right now. Realistically, there's no way to genetically alter a person's DNA, so the only other option is to sterilize people.

I could maybe, just maybe, agree to mandatory MMR vaccines, Polio, things of that nature. But flu shots?!? They're not even effective 2/3rds of the time. They're based on a best guess on how the disease is going to mutate. And they commonly cause adverse reactions.

With all due respect curious, I'm not too keen on the idea of ending up in jail on your world, because while the idea of vaccination is excellent, I don't trust every single vaccine. MMR is great, Polio, and others, but some like the Flu shot and Meningitis vaccine I'm not too keen on.