Question

The World Health Organization defines public health as 'the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts of society'.

A) Explain why public health can be regarded as a public good.

B) Vaccines are one way to deal with the spread of disease; the success of vaccination programs depends on a significant proportion of the population being vaccinated. Despite this, some of the population choose not to be vaccinated. How would economists explain this behaviour?

Explain the welfare implications of such behaviour, and suggest a way the government could intervene in the market for vaccinations to achieve a more efficient outcome.

Answer 1

Ans. A) Public health can be regarded as a public good because, in the present situation of COVID-19, an individual who is conscious enough and takes precautions every day and follows the government's guidelines is actually saving himself and the society for rapidly spreading of COVID-19 and thus can be regarded as a public good is defined as a commodity or service that is beneficial for the whole society and not a particular individual by the governing bodies of a country. This pandemic on the positive note will bring consciousness in the people about various things like sanitation, and above all a sense of responsibility to cure themselves followed by the nation. So to conclude, one can say that in this situation, it is worth to say public health a public good.

B) Vaccines are very important to deal with such a disease. It is true that the success of vaccination programs depends on a significant proportion of the population being vaccinated. Now if some of the population choose not to be vaccinated, the economist may call it very irrational and irresponsible behavior because this population can affect the whole population again and it will have large scale implications.

The welfare implications owing to this irresponsible behavior will be compromised. The government should not take the decision to spread awareness amongst the people. Contrary to this, the government can strictly make the proper taking of the vaccines mandatory for the people and charge some fine in case if someone is not taking it. The other thing that the government can do is to relatively decrease the price of vaccines according to the economic condition of the region and even no cost of the vaccine for very poor people wherever applicable. Eventually, one can say that the government can successfully reach its objective.