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Comment by daft_pink | Hacker News Reader

I think it’s more about allowing people the freedom to make their own medical decisions.

I got the covid vaccine and setup appointments for everyone in my family to get the vaccine and I think not getting the vaccine is crazy, but that doesn’t mean I support the government forcing every person to get the vaccine. However, I think it’s a bit frustrating that by not approving the vaccines for Covid it is a lot harder for people to get these vaccines.

Also, I think the idea that we have all this healthcare it’s super expensive yet people aren’t really getting healthier is a legitimate criticism of our system and that we do need a more holistic view on healthcare.

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Vaccines don't work on a "everybody makes their own choice" basis. It's a basic medical science fact that you need a large enough population to take them to make a difference, and for the people who legitimately cannot take a vaccine, it is in society's interest to help them stay safe and healthy by vaccinating most people.

>Also, I think the idea that we have all this healthcare it’s super expensive yet people aren’t really getting healthier

Americans don't "have all this healthcare". Americans avoid going to the doctors because they cannot afford it. Other countries pay dramatically less for healthcare and get better results.

Even just prescriptions in the US is absurd. People aren't taking medicine they need because a pill or injection that was invented 60 years ago and costs less than a penny a dose is sold for hundreds of dollars a week.

>Vaccines don’t work on a “everybody makes their own choice” basis.

In my experience they do work exactly that way, you take a vaccine and then you are far less likely to get the disease. It’s true that you cannot reach herd imunity or reduce the spread until you get a large enough population. I’m still think it’s a choice thing though.

>A pill or injection that was invented 60 years ago and costs less than a penny a dose is sold for hundreds of dollar a week.

Currently, I take 3 different generics popular generics that cost a few bucks a month. I could get it covered under my insurance, but I prefer to just pay cash without insurance to buy in larger quantities direct from Amazon as it works out to be about the same, but I don’t have to manage the inventory. I also take a semiglutide for weight loss, which costs thousands upon thousands a year that insurance brings down to $25 a month. But it wasn’t invented 60 years ago. Someday it will probably be available extremely cheap though.

I think most senior citizens would agree that most common medications that make it on the generic list really don’t cost much in the United States.

There are people who can't take vaccines because if medical conditions, that's why we need herd immunity, not to mention the possibility to eradicate a disease completely like the smallpox.

There is a point where the your personal choice affects thousand upto millions negatively. At that point it stopps to be a perosnal choice.

> In my experience they do work exactly that way, you take a vaccine and then you are far less likely to get the disease. It’s true that you cannot reach herd imunity or reduce the spread until you get a large enough population

The problem is there are some people who have real actual reasons they can't take the vaccine. They need the population to reach herd immunity for them to be protected. If other people opt out and there's no herd immunity, they die.

> I think it’s more about allowing people the freedom to make their own medical decisions.

I'm not familiar with how things work in the USA, but this statement from the article seems to say the reverse:

> When Kennedy signs this, the MMRV will not be covered by many insurers and it will be unavailable to most people in practice.

I'm guessing that means currently most people are free to make their own choice on whether to get the vaccine independent of any financial considerations. If is speculations are on target they will have to pay for the vaccine, so the decision has more constraints - and so is correspondingly less free.

About 9 out of 10 unvaccinated children will get Measles, of those about 1 in 1,000 will suffer sever complications like brain damage or death. I guess if you are poor, your pretty likely to means you accept the 0.1% risk.

I agree! You make a good point about how regulatory power can shape consequences in either direction.

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