Misinformation, Freedom of Expression and Mandatory Vaccination

In their recent book, Inducing Immunity (2024), Roland Pierik and Marcel Verweij develop an account of collective immunization according to which liberal-democratic governments are sometimes justified in restricting people's freedom to refuse vaccination. In this commentary, I focus on a specific argument in the book about misinformation, freedom of expression and mandatory vaccination. Pierik and Verweij argue that, when vaccine misinformation threatens vaccination rates, governments-in order to increase or maintain vaccination rates-should consider mandatory vaccination before restricting freedom of expression. I summarize the argument and raise two issues to help advance the debate.