I've been reading a lot of the commentary going on in relation to this New York Times article about parents who are refusing to vaccinate their children.  Part of this problem comes from over-protective parents who read bad information on the Internet, and think that vaccinations are too dangerous.  Especially problematic is the mythology behind the vaccine-autism link, and the idiots like John McCain who propagate the belief in this link.  The problem here is that there is a two-fold free riding problem.

The most obvious free riding problem is the one that Megan McArdle has been talking about recently, in that parents are taking advantage of herd immunity.  As long as 99% of the population are vaccinated, parents can refuse vaccination and their child will be safe, without exposing them to the risks of vaccination.  As Megan correctly points out, this very quickly breaks down as soon as enough people free ride.  Once herd immunity breaks down, the community at large suffers... even those who took the vaccine.

At the same time, Michelle Malkin wants to be able to make decisions taking only the best interests of her child in mind.  Of course, if everyone did that, then too many people would refuse immunization and the system breaks down very quickly.  But Michelle does expose the other free riding problem.  Doctors and pharmaceuticals are free ride on the legal structures created to enforce immunization, and are trying to convince parents to get their children immunized against things that aren't absolutely necessary.  The Hepatitis B example is a very good one, in that the transmission of the disease is very specific and not typical of other diseases that we enforce immunization on, especially for children.  Same goes with cervical cancer vaccines.  Both of these are compounded by the fact that companies are over selling their effectiveness.

And when you look at the debates, and who has pushed for the bills, you very quickly see that many companies are rent seeking... essentially creating a legally enforced market for their drug.  And so drug companies are free riding on the good will of the community at large, and abusing the trust that we have in doctors.  And so now that parents have caught onto this, they're not just becoming skeptical of certain vaccines, but of all vaccines.

This is why having any legal framework forcing a community to do something is dangerous... because people in power will try to take advantage of the framework, and sneak in more and more, because they see a captive market.  The solution here is two fold.  First, we need to tighten the restrictions by which parents can refuse vaccinations for their children, but at the same time tighten the restrictions on what vaccines we force children to have.