Germany doubles smallpox
vaccines From correspondents in Berlin February 08, 2003
GERMANY has ordered 30 million doses of
smallpox vaccine, almost doubling its stocks in case of a terrorist
attack, the health ministry announced.
The new order will bring the number of smallpox vaccine shots available
in the country to 66 million.
Germany has a population of some 82 million people.
In January, Health Minister Ulla Schmidt said that by the end of the
year Germany would build up its stock of smallpox vaccine to 100 million
shots.
But Schmidt insisted there was no reason to panic and there was no
indication of any serious threat of a smallpox attack.
A number of countries, including the United States, have already
announced an increase in their stocks of smallpox vaccinations.
US President George W Bush, who was himself inoculated before
Christmas, said hundreds of thousands of US troops and key civilians
would also be given the vaccination.
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OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
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YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"