The rates of vaccination against smallpox among
healthcare workers are quite varied between states and
local jurisdictions, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Just 38,000 workers have
received the vaccine to date, less than 10 percent of
the original national goal of having 450,000 healthcare
professionals vaccinated against the disease, as
activists and health workers themselves question the
need for the vaccine given the associated risk of side
effects. Another concern, that of compensation for
injury or death caused by the vaccine, was only partly
alleviated with a congressional ruling that allowed some
recompense; the White House has yet to publish a table
of injuries and their corresponding value, as it were,
which is necessary before the compensation program can
be implemented. Still, the federal government has not
become resigned to the situation, and it is continuing
to gather enough smallpox vaccine to immunize the entire
country should a bioterrorist event occur and to create
a distribution and training network for administration
of the vaccine in that event.
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is for general information purposes only and is not to be construed as
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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?"