Question

1. Discuss the issues of anti-vaxx movement and herd immunity (or any other example of your choice) within the framework of negative and positive externalities.

Answer 1

Anti -vaxx refers to the refusal to get vaccinated . This is a sort of negative externality. The reason being that if one is not vaccinated, the person is vulnerable to the disease , making others around him also vulnerable to the disease. This is a risk to the health of others who are living in his community. One of the methods to avoid this anti- vaxx was to tax the ones who refuse to be vaccinated because they were in a way putting others at risk. This was done in 1905 when people refused to get vaccinated against smallpox in the state of Massachusetts. In negative externality as in this case, the private costs are lower than the marginal costs ie the cost to the society for an individual not vaccinating would be higher than to the individual itself.

Herd community means indirectly protecting the community when a large percentage of population is being vaccinated or immune to the disease. This means that the transmission of disease would reduce thereby protecting the community from a massive outbreak of disease. Also it would help reduce the impact or vulnerability of the disease for individuals who are medically not fit to get vaccinated. This works as a positive externality ie the marginal benefits of the society with this immunization is higher than the marginal benefits individuals get from the vaccination.

Diseases which are contagious like measles, chickenpox etc are at less risk when a large percentage of population is vaccinated.

(you can comment for doubts )