Speed limits aren't a choice; nor should vaccines be
By Donald G. McNeil Jr. / Special to The Washington Post
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. needs to stop saying vaccines are “a personal choice.”
They’re not. Speed limits aren’t a personal choice. Smoking on airplanes isn’t a personal choice. Paying taxes isn’t a personal choice. In wartime, the draft isn’t a personal choice. (Kennedy, who was born two weeks before me, is old enough to remember those days.) Sacrifices are what make us a nation instead of 340 million selfish hunter-gatherers. Each of us gives up some personal freedoms so we all stay alive. Opposing lifesaving mandates is childish libertarian nonsense.
Sadly, our top health official is a childish libertarian.
Just because there are no cops or smoke detectors around, or just because tax loopholes or conscientious-objector laws or religious exemptions exist, doesn’t change the fundamental principle: If enough of us refuse to obey a sensible protective law, people will die.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-speed-limits-arent-a-choice-nor-should-vaccines-be/