Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccine

There's been a lot of media hype regarding the swine flu. There is some speculation about making a swine flu vaccine mandatory.

That answers the question "Who profited from the swine flu scare?" The swine flu vaccine manufacturer profited. Some people will seek out the vaccine voluntarily. Some people might be forced to take the vaccine.

Consider the smallpox vaccine. The smallpox vaccine is a virus that's closely related to smallpox. It's close enough that it gives smallpox immunity.

When smallpox was a disease present in the wild, it made sense to vaccinate everyone for smallpox. Smallpox is a really serious illness.

Unfortunately, the smallpox vaccine virus itself is very dangerous. Approximately 1 in 100k-300k people get really sick from the smallpox vaccine. (With modern medicine, the real risk of the smallpox vaccine is probably lower.) When smallpox was present in the wild, this was a reasonable risk to take. Since smallpox is no longer present in the wild, vaccinating everyone for smallpox would be intentionally causing several deaths per year, from the side-effect of the vaccine.

Every vaccine or drug has risks. There's a reason that not everyone gets a smallpox vaccine, because of the risk involved. In the present, only soldiers and doctors get smallpox vaccines, because of the risk that they might be exposed to the virus.

Swine flu is a disease that isn't fatal in normal healthy adults. That makes a vaccine unnecessary, especially if the vaccine may have side-effects. The only people who died from swine flu had other medical problems.

As another example, a chicken pox vaccine is silly. Chicken pox isn't normally fatal. You get better natural immunity by getting the disease and recovering.

The media hype takes precedence over science. There's no valid reason to vaccinate everyone against swine flu, because it isn't a serious illness. Via "Problem! Reaction! Solution!", a swine flu vaccine becomes mandatory.

The obvious question is "Who profits from the swine flu hype?" The pharmaceutical corporation that developed the vaccine benefits. Some people will take the vaccine out of their own foolishness. State violence may force others to take the vaccine.

Vaccines are a valid form of medicine. Polio and smallpox are serious diseases for which a vaccine is effective. In the present, vaccines are overused. This problem is exacerbated when the State passes a mandatory vaccination law. Because the State has an absolute monopoly, State laws are nearly completely uncorrelated with "What are best practices?"