On 9-8-2013 0:00, Warp wrote:
> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> Or to recognize that it's actually not very nice to tell people "we know
>> better than you" and to force them to do something they don't want.
>
> We can approach the dilemma from a philosophical point of view, or we
> can approach it from a pragmatic point of view.
>
> Forcing them will save thousands and thousand of lives. Not only theirs,
> but that of other people (because the more people have immunity, the
> more protected those few are who do not.)
>
> You can talk all you like about what their freedoms and rights are, but
> we are also talking about saving people's lives. And as said, it's not
> only *their* lives we are talking about. We cannot stop them from
> committing suicide because of delusion, but we can stop them from
> spreading the disease to others, many of whom do not hold the same
> deluded beliefs and who would very much like to be spared from the
> disease.

In the Netherlands we have a small outbreak of measles. There are 
vaccines but in some areas enough parents refuse to get their children 
vaccinated because of 1) conservative religious reasons (we should not 
interfere in God's plans) 2) some sort of feeling that modern technology 
is always harmful (e.g. followers of Anthroposofic principles are often 
mentioned).

If we are unable to get everybody vaccinated here, is there any reason 
why it should work in Afghanistan, other than 'we know better, so you 
have to do what we say'?

There are also other sorts of distrust against vaccinations. For 
instance do you remember the attacks in India on polio workers?



-- 
Everytime the IT department forbids something that a researcher deems
necessary for her work there will be another hole in the firewall.

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