Many lives might be saved if inoculations against cow flu were routinely administered to all people in areas where the disease is detected. However, since there is a small possibility that a person will die as a result of the inoculations, we cannot permit inoculations against cow flu to be routinely administered.

Many lives might be saved if inoculations against cow flu were routinely administered to all people in areas where the disease is detected. However, since there is a small possibility that a person will die as a result of the inoculations, we cannot permit inoculations against cow flu to be routinely administered.

For the conclusion that routine inoculations against cow flu cannot be permitted, I think it has the following problems:

First, It should depend on how big or small the possibility of dying as a result of the inoculations is, compared to the possibility of dying from cow flu as a result of not having the inoculations. If the probability of the former is lower than that of the latter, then the conclusion is not correct, and we should permit the routine administration.

Second, the argument doesn’t provide details regarding different death rates from inoculations in different demorgraphic groups. If the cases of deaths are mostly amongst some certain groups of people, such as certain age groups or socioeconomic groups. That could still save some lives, and we want to save lives, right?

Last, beside the demorgraphic group considerations, I believe we should investigate whether other factors, for example, any differences in operation details of this medical procedure, influence its death rate. We could be able to restrict those underlying factors instead of restricting the inoculation itself.

In a word, I believe we need further discussion regarding the above three points before we draw the conclusion to disallow the routine administration of inoculations.