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June 23, 2003
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
NSW Behind in Meningococcal Vaccinations
Australian Associated Press (AAP) (aap.com.au)
Australian Health Minister Kay Patterson is
urging New South Wales (NSW) Health Minister Morris Iemma to immediately launch
a meningococcal C vaccination program for children between the ages of 15 and 19
years, rather than waiting until July as NSW has planned. These school-based
clinics must be up and running very soon to ensure as many as possible NSW high
school students receive the best possible protection against meningococcal C
disease, Patterson asserted. According to NSW chief health officer Greg
Stewart, the federal government had been informed that implementing the program
in NSW schools would take a little longer, as they do not currently have a
school-based immunization program. Stewart noted that the program will
vaccinate 1.2 million children and teenagers over a three-year period.
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"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?"