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.