Controversies in Vaccine Policy

This chapter frames controversy over vaccine policy, especially vaccine mandates, as value disputes that require deliberative recourse through political channels. The polarizing tendencies of characterizing vaccine opposition as scientific misinformation and defending vaccine policy as “following the science” obscure the value disagreements that need airing and resolution. “Follow the science” policy is shown to be epistemically unjustified and politically illegitimate. Instead, the hard political and policy work of determining legitimate vaccine policy cannot and should not be avoided. Readers may be interested in these Handbook chapters as well: Rebecca Korf and Cailin O'Connor, “Networks and Values”; T. Y. Branch, “Values in Science and Science Communication Models.”