Free-Ridership, Herd Immunity, and Conscientious Objection to Vaccination

Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Date

Referencing Style: APA / Word Count: 380

Free – Ridership in Herd Immunity and Conscientious Objection to Vaccination

Free-Ridership and Herd Immunity

The decision-making of getting oneself immunized can be affected by the immunization choices of others. For instance, to combat any disease in the environment, either a person should get immunized or everyone else get immunized to enable the person enjoy as a free-rider immunity without getting vaccinated (Ibuka et al., 2014). Through this paper, an attempt has been made to understand the concepts of Free-ridership through herd immunity and about striking a balance between Conscientious objection to vaccination and the duty to immunize people for the best interest of public health and safety.

Understanding Free-Rider Immunity

Free-rider immunity is defined as the phenomenon of not plunging into the vaccination process or of supporting the public to acquire herd immunity but still enjoying the immunity as everyone else has got immunized in the community (Buttenheim and Asch, 2013). In the wake of acquiring herd immunity, the free-ridership is significant for those who cannot be inoculated owing to the conditions like allergies to eggs, gelatins or other vaccines or there are life threatening conditions like Cancer (Mcdarrah, 2020). However, when more and more people deliberately and without any genuine reason think of enjoying free-ridership, then the problems related to acquiring herd immunity are evident and would rather make people prone to illnesses (Browne, 2015). 

Conscientious Objection to Vaccination

The phenomenon of Conscientious Objection to Vaccination, which is to consciously avoid getting vaccinated by the people or for their dependents (Clarke et al., 2017), may affect the phenomenon of acquiring herd immunity. Although there are certain group of people who cannot be inoculated such as infants and children, vulnerable population with illnesses, to name a few, getting 90-95% of population is important to acquire herd immunity and to protect the vulnerable group of people from illnesses (Browne, 2015). Another group of authors Clarke, Giubilini & Walker (2017) argue that although conscientious objection to vaccination is permissible, the principle may become de facto impermissible in cases where herd immunity is highly compromised in cases of life-threatening illnesses. Thus, striking a balance between Conscientious Objection to Vaccination and duty to save public health by immunization should be made. Also, people should not enjoy being free-riders at the stake of putting others at risk and should do their bit to acquire herd immunity.

References

Buttenheim, A.M. and Asch, D. A. (2013) Making vaccine refusal less of a free ride. Hum 

Vaccin Immunother. doi: 10.4161/hv.26676. Available at 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4162060/

Browne (2015) Measles, Vaccination, and the Tragedy of the Commons. The Hastings Center.

Available at https://www.thehastingscenter.org/measles-vaccination-and-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/

Clarke et al. (2017) Conscientious Objection to Vaccination. Bioethics. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12326

Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5324623/

Ibuka, Y. et al. (2014) Free-Riding Behavior in Vaccination Decisions: An Experimental Study. 

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087164. Available at 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3901764/

McDarrah, T. (2020) The Right And Wrong Way To Solve The Office ‘Free Rider’ Dilemma. 

Forbes. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/teddymcdarrah/2020/12/07/the-right-and-wrong-way-to-solve-the-office-free-rider/?sh=766d098f5886