Oh
man, just... no. First of all, this
"news" was almost exclusively reported by fringe clickbait media outlets
- such as redice. There's a reason for that: the
actual news in Sweden is that the government simply decided not to
enforce the compulsory vaccination of its citizens, on the grounds that
it conflicted with pre-existing constitutional rights. There's no "ban."
The mandate to vaccinate still exists in law, because it's still
totally sensible; they just aren't enforcing it. It's very likely that
the language will be rewritten in the coming years to implement sensible
penalties for abstainers, because abstainers are ignorant, and because
perpetuating ignorance about critical social healthcare tends to lead to
a lot of people becoming unhealthy and/or dying for absolutely no good
reason. Not nearly as sensational when you put it like that. There was
no citing of health concerns, etc., only acknowledgement that side
effects to vaccines exist and that that their citizens should have the
option of over-reacting to them because of something false they saw on
Facebook. (They're progressive like that). That particular blatant
falsehood can be chocked up to "creative embellishment" by the
apparently exclusively non-journalistic entities that came out of the
woodwork to "report" it - along with other examples of comic
anti-brilliance, such as citing "sodium chloride" (aka COMMON SALT) as a
"toxic, unhealthy chemical" additive.
The entire theoretical purpose of any society is to mandate sensible minor compromises for the objectively greater benefit of the majority. That aforementioned
free—useful—education to which Swedes have access is also an important
contextual omission from the headlines and stories circulating. History, science, and
common sense are actually taught in schools there. So, while they may
now officially not be legally required to do so, I strongly suspect
they're generally extremely likely to continue to vaccinate their
children... ya know, so their children can continue to NOT die from/be-maimed-by/end-up-horribly-disfigured-by some truly fucking awful,
completely preventable diseases. Here in the states, on the other hand,
we're "free" to let measles and mumps outbreaks run rampant thanks in no
small part to a not nearly small-enough minority of anti-vaxxers - who
are still numerous enough to put a significant dent in herd immunity,
putting not only their own kids at risk, but everyone else's, too.
There
should be fewer/better additives developed to stabilize and preserve
vaccines, sure - but even the oldest, most toxic vaccine to ever see widespread use would
still do far less damage even in its outlying worse-cases than would a minute or two of inhaling secondhand cigarette smoke. This
entire issue is sensationalist bullshit. Nobody is entitled to an
unchallenged public opinion when said opinion contradicts fact, reason, and even common-fucking-sense!
There, I'm done. A tall glass of reason with a thick tmesis sandwich is a balm in this age of insanity.
