Q17 - Health care facilities have a duty

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Necessary Assumption

Stimulus Breakdown:
Conclusion: Flu shots must be mandatory for all employees at healthcare facilities.
Evidence: These facilities have a duty to protect patients from unnecessary harm. The flu poses a big risk and the vaccines reduce that risk.

Answer Anticipation:
The law that healthcare facilities must follow is "protect from unnecessary harm". Is the flu vaccine a case where if we didn't force all employees to have the vaccine, we'd be subjecting patients to "unnecessary harm"? It seems like you could argue that "potentially increased exposure to the flu" is not the same as "unnecessary harm".

You also have to assume that requiring all employees to get flu shots wouldn't in some way result in something that exposes patients to unnecessary harm.

Correct Answer:
D

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) Out of scope: employees' beliefs. If we negate this and find out that employees would regard this policy as violating their rights, it doesn't hurt the internal logic of the argument. If mandatory vaccinations ACTUALLY violated their rights, then the author's solution would sound, commonsensically, like a nonstarter. But this answer is about whether employees' PERCEPTIONS are that they're being violated.

(B) Too strong/specific: "the most harmful". The flu could be the 2nd most harmful and the argument would still make sense.

(C) Too strong/specific: "Most" patients are not vaccinated. Whether 49% or 51% of patients are vaccinated, the argument can make sense either way.

(D) YES: If we negate this, it says that voluntary vaccination would ADEQUATELY protect patients from harm. If voluntary vaccination is an acceptable way for the health-care facility to fulfill its duty, then the CONC is wrong to say that health-care facilities MUST do mandatory vaccinations in order to fulfill their duty. You don't HAVE to do Action X, if Action Y is an adequate alternative.

(E) Out of scope: what society has accepted.

Takeaway/Pattern: I didn't see this answer coming, but I'm sure others will have. The template here allows for several different attack points.
The argument thinks that X poses a problem and says that we must do Y to solve it.
That argument is assuming
1. X is in reality a problem (are flu viruses really posing unnecessary harm)
2. Y is a viable solution (would mandatory vaccinations have some unwanted repercussion that actually exposes the patients to harm / would mandatory vaccinations be able to solve problem X)
3. Is Y the only viable solution (could voluntary vaccinations work well enough that we're not boxed in to choosing mandatory vaccinations)

#officialexplanation

[AriGold]

Hey ohthatpatrick,

I think you have the wrong AC listed. You have A listed as the right AC but it's supposed to be D.

Thanks for the explanations.

[NichP73]

Hey ohthatpatrick,

I think you have the wrong AC listed. You have A listed as the right AC but it's supposed to be D.

Thanks for the explanations.

D is correct , I think you have the wrong one

[JeffM728]

Hey ohthatpatrick,

I think you have the wrong AC listed. You have A listed as the right AC but it's supposed to be D.

Thanks for the explanations.

D is correct , I think you have the wrong one

From Patrick's post:

Correct Answer:
A

Patrick put the wrong answer choice as the correct answer, but has it right in the answer choice breakdown.

[Laura Damone]

Good Catch! It's been corrected. Thanks!

[ZakB379]

good information for me))

[JorgeL203]

How would you negate choice C?

[Laura Damone]

The quick and dirty way to negate "most are not" is simply "most are." An alternative, and slightly more exact, way to negate "most are not" is "exactly half are not." Since "most" implies "at least 1 more than 50%," exactly 50% is a perfect negation. That said, many students find the latter method clunky, and I've never seen a question in which the former method would get you in trouble. So if you prefer the quick and dirty method, use it!

Quick and dirty: Most patients in health-care facilities are vaccinated against influenza.

More exact: Exactly half the patients in health-care facilities are not vaccinated against influenza.

Hope this helps!

[DarleenK762]

Yes, I believe that health care workers should be vaccinated, because a person with flu is a source of infection from the first hours of illness.