People don’t have the right to infect others
By Lethbridge Herald on December 24, 2025.
Ken Moore
For The Herald
In Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith and her followers always talk about independence, community spirit, and straight talk. Personal liberty seems particularly important to those who are the most vocal.
But liberty has always had limits, especially when one person’s choice endangers the safety of everyone else. As measles, pertussis and other preventable diseases re-emerge across North America, and in particular, in Alberta, it’s time for our province to consider what many jurisdictions already accept as common sense: mandatory vaccination for highly infectious and dangerous diseases.
This is not a reckless assault on individual rights. It is a recognition of a deeper truth within our Constitution: the rights of society as a whole sometimes must outweigh the preferences of the individual. The Charter itself states that rights are subject to “reasonable limits … demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”
Courts have consistently upheld this balancing principle, whether in public safety laws, limits on harmful expression, or public health measures that protect the community. Our Constitution recognizes individual rights. But it also recognizes something else: the right of society to protect itself. Yes, individual rights are very important. But even more important are the rights of our whole society: the general populace. And few measures are more clearly justified than preventing outbreaks of diseases that spread silently, rapidly, and indiscriminately.
We’ve seen the consequences of ignoring this reality before. Typhoid Mary—Mary Mallon—was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever who infected dozens and caused multiple deaths. She insisted on her personal liberty, even after being told she was spreading disease. Her story remains a stark warning: when individual rights are exercised without regard for others, the result can be deadly.
When one person’s choices can harm and even kill hundreds, the province has not only the right but the duty to intervene.
Vaccination is one of the very few tools that can prevent a modern-day repeat of such failures. Alberta’s measles vaccination rate has slipped below levels needed for herd immunity. That puts newborns, cancer patients, and the immunocompromised—people who cannot be vaccinated— and others, especially the elderly, directly in harm’s way. Their right to life and security of the person surely carries at least as much weight as someone’s preference to remain unvaccinated.
Courts across Canada have consistently held that reasonable limits on individual freedom are justified when public health is at stake. From seatbelt laws to mandatory motorcycle helmets, judges have affirmed the principle that governments may step in when failure to act endangers the public. Infectious diseases carry far higher risks than riding without a helmet, yet we allow the former to remain optional.
Some object on religious grounds, saying “God will protect me.” Faith deserves respect, but so does wisdom. As the old saying goes: God helps those who help themselves. And the greatest help when it comes to infectious diseases comes in the form of vaccines. Vaccines are among the greatest tools ever produced to protect one another. But they must be administered to be effective.
A government initiated mandatory policy would be best. Mandatory vaccination would bring two major benefits to Alberta’s government and its health-care system.
First, fewer outbreaks mean fewer sick days, fewer disruptions to workplaces, and less economic downtime. When thousands of workers fall ill, or must stay home with sick children, the entire economy slows. Productivity drops. Businesses suffer. Mandated vaccination would substantially reduce this avoidable strain.
Second, the cost savings to Alberta Health Services would be enormous. Hospital care for measles cases can run into the thousands of dollars per patient; severe complications from diseases like polio or meningitis can cost far more. Outbreaks burden emergency rooms, require isolation protocols, and divert staff and resources from other essential services. Preventing these hospitalizations is not only compassionate, it is fiscally responsible.
Premier Smith often talks about common sense. Mandatory vaccination for highly contagious, dangerous diseases is exactly that: common sense. It protects the vulnerable, upholds the constitutional principle that society’s safety matters, and saves millions in avoidable health-care costs.
Mandated vaccination is not about government overreach. It is about government fulfilling its most basic responsibility: ensuring the safety of its people and being fiscally responsible. Alberta should openly and seriously consider requiring vaccination for all highly contagious and dangerous diseases, with narrow exemptions for genuine medical need.
While it might be preferable to persuade everyone to be vaccinated for the various infections for which we have vaccines, some individuals would never get vaccinated without it becoming mandatory. And mandatory vaccinations are not rare. Numerous countries require people to be vaccinated against polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and hepatitis B. Obviously, persuasion hasn’t worked in Alberta. A stronger measure is necessary.
We are all in this together. And protecting each other, especially against preventable diseases, is the very essence of what it means to live in a free, responsible, and caring society. Freedom is a cherished value in Alberta. But freedom does not include the right to expose others to preventable harm. In a civil society, rights are balanced with responsibilities. Vaccination is not just a personal choice; it is a civic duty. And it is one thing the government should make mandatory.
Ken Moore is a longtime resident of Stirling and retired news director at CFAC Television.
19-18
Measles and Chicken Pox today is obviously very different from what it was like growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. I had both. As soon as the signs of this disease came through, there was just one thing to do: Stay home and get better. Don’t go outside to play, have friends over, etc. It was common sense. Also, I had these infections during the best time possible, over the summer holidays! I did not miss a single day of school until highschool, for obvious reasons. Did i get the shots back then to prevent those diseases? No, I did not. In fact, the only shots I ever did have to take as a kid were allergy shots because I became asthmatic, and once we figured out, after a skin test, what I was allergic to, shots were given for two years. Skin test again to see if it’s improved, and there was only one that had a bad result, those pesky tumble weeds! Not everyone is going to react the same with injections. Some may get more sick than others and intended to be. The main point of this is common sense. If you are starting to feel unwell, stay home, drink plenty of fluids and if things really get bad, then go to the ER (I recommend Raymond if you can over LRH and the fiasco they have in the ER currently). Also, don’t invite people over or go out or do anything to enhance the sickness. That’s my two cents.
The problem with your advice is that for many infectious diseases, people are contagious before they show symptoms. That’s why vaccinations are so important for the safety of others.
You are talking about being a carrier. How do you know you are a carrier until the symptoms show? Unless you have a compromised immune system, then it should be up to you whether or not to take the shot. Our bodies was already built with an immune system. Why mess it up? Let it do its job. One year, I caught the flu in February, and for the whole month, I maybe only attended a handful of classes. I went home, and used the old adage, “starve a cold, feed a fever”. Even if you weren’t hungry, eat anyways, it helped. By the first week of March, I was so energetic I did three times the school work than I did in February, no sign that I was ever sick. Did I take the shot? No, I let my body to its job.
Please address my point.
I thought I did. You said “people are contagious before they show symptoms. ” If you can go without showing any symptoms, then why bother doing the shot? You’re body is obviously doing something about it to not affect you. If someone you come in contact with suddenly develops symptoms, and they are not carriers, then act accordingly. My point is, let your body do what it’s intended to do. You have an immune system for a reason. Let your body use it.
“Then why bother getting the shot?” The answer is a simple one, it’s because the science tells us that the measles vaccine is almost 100% effective at preventing infection and thus reducing transmission. Do some breakthrough infections occur? Sure, but they are rare.
Public health experts recommend multiple layers of protection against disease transmission. Staying home when sick is one element, as is frequent handwashing, but vaccinations are a central component of a multi-layered system.
According to the Government of Alberta, between March 2025 and December 23 there were 2,004 confirmed measles cases in Alberta, half of which (50.6%) were in the Southern Region where we have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the province.
These data, combined with our knowledge of how vaccines work, demonstrate beyond any doubt the importance of vaccination programs as a cornerstone of good public health policy.
You still totally don’t get the point at all, that Mrs. Kidd is making. Being a carrier before you know it is exactly why you need to get vaccinated. Your old-time, homespun story in this and your later comments on here are a lot of nonsense. People who don’t get vaccinated for silly reasons should not be allowed in the general public. Go start your cult in a bare patch of land in the middle of nowhere and stay there with your other brain-washed compatriots.
I have never been burned to death in a fire, so I should be able to start fires wherever and whenever I want. This anecdote shows just how stupid your antivax logic is.
sure, you can start a fire. But if you play with it, you’ll get burned. Also, comparing immunity to fire is like comparing apple to oranges. Again, we do have the right to go out in public if we feel healthy enough, but when we do get sick, then we stay home. It’s common sense. Why should I take something if there is no need for it?
Mr. Moore, news director maybe news manipoulatoer like most does not talk about many thousands of people of earth who are severely harmed or died from vaccinations in the past last time Covid. Mr. Moore check record people have a right to be afraid of harm in the name of vaccine. Balance your story then I beleive you I might. Merry Christmas
I one hundred and ten percent agree with you
I expect your opinions are immunized against facts, but I’m going to give it a whirl anyway.
As of December 2023, 105 million COVID doses had been administered in Canada. In only 0.056% were adverse reactions reported. And in only 0.011% were severe adverse reactions reported.
To put that in perspective, you have a higher risk of being struck by lightning.
Statistics can be skewed to fit the narrative. I know as I have taken statistics. I knew what the answers for the questions were for the course, but I like to dive in a little deeper and ask “What if…?” That’s what these “experts” do. They manipulate the results to fit the narrative of putting on a scare tactic to get people to comply. You say we have a better chance of getting hit by lightening? Then I shall summon up Galileo and we can chant “Thunderbolts of lightening, very very frightening me” (NOT!)
Facts just bounce off of you conspiracy theorists. You can try to brush them aside, but they are stil the facts, and you are still naively misinformed.
Facts can also be manipulated to fit the narrative. Remember, follow the money and you will see what I am talking about.
If as you say you’ve “taken statistics”, then you should know that a good statistic is based on a good survey taking into account confounding variables . You like to “dive deeper”, likely to find something in the internet (“dark web “) which agrees with your narrow -minded , self centred viewpoint. Good science is backed up by sound statistical analysis. Your views belong in the Middle Ages or amongst those theorists believing the earth is flat, the faked moon landing, – the list goes on and on….
No, when statistics were taken, I just used the facts that were in front of me. Granted, the information were just theoretical that the board of education put out there, but that doesn’t mean that I go on the web and search for my answers. I come up with my own with what I have. Also, unless there was a link where the information came from, then I would research that company or finding. There is nothing wrong with being an over thinker. It has its good and bad points. However, not wanting to dig deeper and relying on so called experts who are getting paid to say what’s needed to be said for propaganda and fear mongering shows a lack of intelligence and who the real sheep are in this world
Not sure what planet you are living on, but it is definitely not the one I inhabit*. You seem not to have taken much in, whatever statistical course you purport to have studied. Yet are keen to quote other stuff that supports your ill-conceived conclusions and fail to understand the concept of genuine statistical methods. RK junior would be proud of your accomplishments.
*BTW, why “Lilliputian”? I am no Gulliver and you are certainly not Gandalf! (The latter being wise, objective, factual, loyal, courageous and practical.)
Oh yes, the old, trite and hackneyed data manipulation reply. A favoured response by those who don’t have a valid argument.
Your monologue prefaced by an assumption or at least some form of “ news manipulation” , is incomplete and inaccurate.
Typically, you reference those “harmed” by vaccinations as if they were the majority. They were/are not. Not even close. That some had undesirable side-effects is not contested. What is also true however is, based on statistically sound reporting from multiple health agencies world wide , that COVID vaccinations for example , saved the lives of hundreds and thousands from developing severe outcomes. In addition, vaccinations of a sufficiently large percentage of a population reduce the contagion spreading more widely. It’s called “herd immunity” as referenced by the writer. No doubt you Sikorsky, prescribe to the teachings of RK Junior and perhaps even the totally disgraced charlatan Andrew Wakefield. Yet people , some people, buy into this real life “fake news”.
Vaccination has eliminated at least one human deadly disease (smallpox) and one animal disease (rinderpest). Polio, measles , other childhood diseases have been reduced to tolerably low levels in many countries. Measles was close to being eradicated in this country , until the latest outbreaks in completely predictable demographics – areas influenced by religious doctrine. Otherwise preventable emergency hospitalizations and deaths occurred , some being in children.
Being “afraid” of diseases is reasonable , ignoring the value of vaccinations within populations is foolhardy and selfish.
You Sikorsky and you Gandalf, would possibly not be alive today if it were not for medical advances controlling life threatening diseases and preventing or reducing the spread of highly contagious diseases like measles and flu. Some contagious and potentially deadly diseases like HPV, are now controlled and effective. How? Vaccination – That’s how!
And finally, to you Gandalf. Going to hospital emergency wards , something that in all likelihood would not have been necessary if one were vaccinated, is one consequence of selfish individuals thinking “It’s all about me, me , me , me.”
As the writer stated , as a society , we need to expand and think about others in the bigger picture. After all, it’s the Christian thing to do.
I had the chicken pox, i survived. I had the measles, I survived. Did I miss school? Nope, because it happened in the summer. Did i get the shot for it afterwards? Nope, because my body made me immune to it. If I hear of someone having one of those illnesses, do I go visit them? No, because why risk it? Did i go outside and infect others while I had those illnesses? No, because we knew better. The fear mongering and propaganda by mainstream media has become ridiculous over the years and I think people are getting tired of the mantra over and over again. You mentioned, “we need to expand and think about others in the biggest picture.” I’m pretty sure I did that in the 70’s and 80’s, even now. If you’re sick or you feel you are coming down with something, stay home, starve a cold, feed a fever, rest, drink plenty of fluids. Oh, by the way, I caught the flu once and I knew it was coming. Hit me hard while I was asleep. You know what I did? I ended up being wrapped in a cocoon with my blankets and sweat it all out in the 12 hours of hard knock sleep. I was a little drenched when I woke up, but man did I feel better. Sometimes home remedies are the best remedies.
Like I said “…it’s all about me, me , me…” You just proved it. A long rambling musing about the trials and tribulations of one “Gandolf” . The real Gandalf would know better and think about others by taking proactive action such as vaccination , shape shifting , alongside sequestering himself in a cave, the latter clearly “Gandolf’s”choice.
I never said it’s about me. It’s about how our body works and people are failing to realize that. Again, you keep talking about “think about others.” I do. As i mentioned, if i am sick, if i have something that can spread, and i show evidence, then I stay home and deal with it. When you are a carrier, you don’t know, so, why take preventative measure when your body is designed to do so?
You really do not have a clue as to how vaccines work and the benefits to the “herd” as well as the individual. Perhaps you have never heard of polio, small pox, rubella, measles, pertussis, rabies, TB and many others. Once potentially fatal diseases now, thankfully rare in areas practising vaccination. Enough of this conversation with you. Your mind is made up, no doubt having devoured the teachings of one RK junior. Have a healthy life and just for once, think about others with whom you associate and no, that does not simply mean staying at home.
While i agree that I have not heard or received some of the diseases you have mentioned, but then again, you mentioned that i “never heard of …. measles” when I have clearly stated that I did get it as a child. Again, our body is made with an IMMUNE SYSTEM, a system that fights off diseases. We get it and our body produces the necessary antibodies to fight it. Then you will never get it again, or if you do, in mild cases. You claim I never think of others. I do. It’s simple. If you feel unwell to perform outside the home, then you just stay home and medicate. Again IF YOU ARE SICK, THEN STAY AT HOME!!! That’s how you stop the spread.
You have heard of “measles” – brilliant – you survived and typically with all deniers, you spend your entire argument relying on that scenario which of course is partially correct – emphasis on “partially”. Alongside Kennedy, Wakefield et al. Your complete disregard for those children currently dead in the ground because of their non vaccination status , or more correctly , because of lack of “herd immunity” is patently obvious.
Anyhow, debate with you is useless.
Just hope your children do not become exposed in a completely naive environment which will happen should current conditions prevail in small minded and selfish communities.
You are missing the point. IF YOU ARE SICK, FOR WHATEVER REASON, STAY HOME!!! DON’T GO OUT AND INFECT OTHERS!!! LET YOUR BODY DO THE WORK!!! HOW THE HECK DID I INFECT PEOPLE WHEN I WAS NOT AROUND THEM, OTHER THAN MY PARENTS WHO ALREADY HAD IT?
OK. Back to basics. Try and keep up. As has been stated already, many people, yes including yourself, are contagious before you realised you were sick. That is fact! Recent outbreaks (with fatalities ) of measles were in unvaccinated or under – vaccinated populations . That is fact!!
Your arguments are about as watertight as the Titanic.
Bye bye!!!
Bye bye as well. Here, let me sweep you off your feet and brush you away to the land of Lilliput
Once you have sympotoms it is too late to prevent the spread of most diseases. How can you not get a grasp on this?
key word you said “most.” I did not spread, I stayed home.
More homespun nonsense that made sense in the 1800’s, but this is 2025. We have advanced past your feel-good, sweat it out stories.
Pretty obvious that attempting to rationally debate with this person is useless. He(or she ), is a prime example of someone having fallen into a dark web of lies and conspiracy theories. To think responsibly outside that black hole is impossible for this individual. Sad , really sad.
Not lies, just not following the narratives of fear mongering for the sake of big pharma and other corporations making record profit on the sale of medications and keeping the stockholders happy with their returns on dividends
What?!?!?