Quarantine for measles? Compulsory innoculations? Forced vaccinations?
February 3, 2015
Given the present outbreak of measles, due, at least in part to people not inoculating their children, I have had over a dozen requests for my opinion as to what the libertarian view is on this important question. Rather than continuing to answer people individually, I thought I would take this opportunity to respond in this more public way.
Here is something I wrote about this type of issue. Although this was written before the current controversy over measles, I think it is still pertinent:
Block, Walter E. 2013. “Forced Vaccinations.” February 4;
https://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block217.html
I note that Rand Paul has taken the opposite point of view from mine on this question. Well, it is a complicated issue.
Dr. Block [send him mail] is a professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans. He is the author of Defending the Undefendable, The Case for Discrimination, Labor Economics From A Free Market Perspective, Building Blocks for Liberty, Differing Worldviews in Higher Education, and The Privatization of Roads and Highways. His latest book is Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty.

