@boomerang,
Quote:I really do think these exclusions need to be based on medical necessity.
That is a wonderfully ambiguous statement. I think I know how you intended it based on your previous statement. But I also say the same thing.
The question is how much pressure should the government put on families to force them to comply. We can do all kinds of things to make people do what we think they should.
There is outreach, education and making sure there is easy access to information and resources. There is social stigma. We can exclude kids from sports. Or exclude them from school. Or levy fines. We can even break up families by removing the kids, or putting the families in jail.
Each of these things will probably increase the number of kids immunized a certain amount. It is certain (from experience with similar efforts to stamp out drug use and homosexuality) that none of these ways of bludgeoning people into submission is completely successful.
And they have costs. Each of the punitive measures , from exclusion to breaking up families ends up hurting the kids we claim that we are protecting.
So I would say that our efforts to make people comply with vaccinations should be based on medical necessity.
If by outreach and education we could bring the number of kids immunized up to the point where group immunity kicks in, why wouldn't we stop there? The goal should be medical necessity, not forced compliance.