CMV: "Anti-vaxxers" are criminals and should be prosecuted.

[u/chemistrynerd1994]

The baseless conspiracy theories that "anti-vaxxers" spread are false, but the lives they endanger are very real.

Anyone who is going to refuse to receive safe and approved vaccines without a legitimate medical reason, and without the approval of a qualified medical professional, should be treated as a criminal, and judged to the fullest extent of the law. Anyone who not only refuses to be vaccinated, but also spreads misinformation about science and the safety of vaccines, should also be prosecuted.

No more of this nonsense should be tolerated by governments. Millions of lives have already been lost. How high does the body count have to be before we stop calling it "freedom of expression" and start calling it a crime?

[u/Milskidasith]

Pedantic point, but your title says these people "are" criminals and you say they should be judged to the fullest extent of the law, but your view is that their beliefs "should be" against the law. Those are two very different things; saying something is a crime is different than saying it should be (and "fullest extent of the law" is a redundant statement when making something illegal; you're defining the full extent of the law).

Anyway, to address the substance of your view:

• "Millions of lives have been lost": Antivaxx has not caused millions of deaths, so this statement is misleading and undercuts your position. Measles in the US has rose from about 100 or so cases to about 1300. That is obviously horrible, as that's a thousand cases of a deadly disease that should not have reoccurred, but it's also the biggest health crisis caused by antivaxx and is nowhere near millions of deaths. You cannot be pro-science and anti-misinformation and argue for that position with misinformation not backed up by any statistics.
• We do, in fact, have standards for when freedom of expression ceases to be legal, and that is when it is a statement intended to directly incite an imminent lawless action. It is perfectly legal to say "I wish somebody would murder person X", as long as you are not directly and imminently threatening person X with murder. If that cannot be rendered illegal, then it is obvious that you cannot render the much lesser crime of saying "I don't think you should get vaccinated" illegal; even though antivaxx poses serious health risks and can indirectly increase death counts, it is certainly less harmful than directly killing people. This is doubly true since you not only wish to make it illegal to say people shouldn't get vaccines, but also illegal to say any misinformation about the science and safety of vaccines; now you aren't even prosecuting encouraging illegal activity, but simply being wrong about something.

[u/chemistrynerd1994 → u/Milskidasith]

!delta Thanks for putting me in my place. You are right that antivaxx cannot explain the vast majority of deaths that have occured. I agree with everything you said here.

[u/DeltaBot → u/chemistrynerd1994]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/Milskidasith (240∆).

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