As readers know from a previous post, I was in Florida for Christmas, trying to unwind. Do you know who else was in Florida? Mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus! How did the U.S. government fail in its fundamental duty to protect us from this invader?
Most agree that government has a role to play in preventing and suppressing epidemics, a classic public-health problem. Viral or bacterial infections are not passed from animal to person, or person to person, by voluntary exchange. Instead, proximity to another’s infection can lead to an individual’s becoming infected, notwithstanding any market interaction.
So, even the most freedom-oriented individuals accept government spending and restrictions on individual choice when the threat of epidemic increases. In 2014, the arrival at Dallas-Fort Worth airport of a man carrying the Ebola virus caused some lawmakers to seek a ban on air travel from countries where Ebola had broken out. Continue reading Zika in Florida: A Case of Government Failure