Justice Holmes was saying that the health of the public overrides considerations of personal liberty. And then he was going a step further and saying that that included something like hereditary health.

A bridge too far. But he was right about compulsory vaccination itself. It was perfectly fitting and reasonable that the public in general be inoculated against smallpox. And they didn’t then have the understanding of chain reactions and epidemics to really confidently know that you could manage just fine with a few percent not vaccinated, especially once almost everyone was immune because of either having had the disease or because of having been vaccinated.

But suppose smallpox were somehow to escape the little bottles into which it has been driven, and a slew of cases began popping up in the US. We’d have to have mass inoculations again. This mortal enemy of all humanity doesn’t deserve any breaks at all and we should not give it any. Take no chances would have to be the watchword.