Reference no: EM132636401

Vaccination policy is a major issue in which government regulations are both necessary and controversial. The science is clear: vaccines work. Vaccines are the reason that diseases like polio have been virtually eradicated from the industrialized world. Vaccines are not dangerous for individuals with typical immune systems, and vaccines are not massive moneymakers for pharmaceutical companies.

https://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/10/04/anti_vax_ten_truths_about_vaccines.html

But myths about vaccine safety persist. A retracted and discredited study from the 1980s once posited a connection between vaccines and autism, and since then, an anti-vaccination movement began.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136032/

Why should the government step in? Why should government regulate whether someone vaccinates their children? It is a simple collective action problem. Vaccines become more effective as more individuals get them because of Herd Immunity.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/herd-immunity.html

The more people who choose to free ride, or to refuse to vaccinate while still being protected by others vaccinating, the lower the immunity of the group. Government must step in to correct the free rider problem. Part of the purpose of government is to ensure that public goods are provided and to overcome the collective action problem. Vaccinations are one of the most revolutionary and important medical innovations of the modern world.

1) How is vaccination policy a collective action problem?