title: Finding the proper balance between freedom and justice: why we should not eliminate personal belief exemptions to vaccine mandates.
abstract: Lantos and colleagues (this issue) propose to eliminate personal belief exemptions from school vaccine mandates, particularly for those vaccines that target deadly contagious childhood disease. They argue that not doing so would be unjust. In this counterpoint, we argue that, for reasons grounded in both health policy and morality, a just vaccine policy need not prohibit parents from claiming personal belief exemptions.
authors: University of Washington.
authors: Douglas J
authors: DJ
authors: Opel
authors: Douglas S
authors: DS
authors: Diekema
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D006801:Humans; D017589:Immunization Programs; D037141:Mandatory Programs; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D045808:Refusal to Participate