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Federal health officials say that
hospitals and health care workers who administer or receive the smallpox vaccine
will not be held liable for adverse reactions to others. But the Bush
administration has refused to create a compensation fund for those who
experience complications related to the smallpox vaccine, and Health and Human
Services adviser D.A. Henderson fears that this could keep some people from
getting vaccinated. Most states' workers' compensation programs will cover
treatment of adverse effects, according to Michael Osterholm, the director of
the University
of Minnesota's Center for
Infectious Disease Research and Policy. However, people who have been injured
by the vaccine who live in states where the compensation does not apply would
have to sue the federal government and prove negligence. Nuclear Threat
Initiative vice president Margaret Hamburg notes that the lack of a compensation
fund combined with the lack of the right to sue leaves no recourse for patients
inadvertently exposed to the vaccine by contact with a vaccinated person.
ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND
MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS
OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
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?"