RE: Mandatory vaccination - before its too late.
Good article Mr Clarke!
Before I jumped on the Steem blockchain, I thought anti-vaxxers were ill-informed and a danger to society as a whole... yet in the same breath I'd rail against so many scientific studies that are purchased by corporations to show their product is healthy/good, etc.
Steem has been really good for me to ask further questions, and while I still think the bulk of scientific data points to vaccinations being good for the individual and society, I've come to respect that I also don't understand all the variables and that the matter simply comes down to trust. We're also choosing not to have kids, so I honestly don't have a horse in this race at all.
I had honestly never thought about the data and documentation of the choice, you raise some really good points. I know at least one nurse and some friends who are pretty intelligent who are all anti-vaxxers, and I'm sure they'd do exactly as you say, shop around until they found medical professionals that share their views (which as you say, would corrupt the data).
I do believe that good data is everything... so you've opened my eyes to a whole point I otherwise totally missed.
You need to be very careful how you quantify success. Before prohibition there were plenty of drunken incidents, fights and even murders on licensed premises. After prohibition was enacted there were no drunken incidents, fights or murders on licensed premises. If that's all you're looking at, it's going to look like a win.
That's a solid analogy, but hopefully no one narrows the data points that much. I think in both cases you could look at total hospital visits for the population to see what effect prohibition/vaccination has. Downtick in barfights sure... uptick in private party fights, ah okay.