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June 25, 2003
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
Ensuring Children Everywhere Have Access to
Vaccines Is Important
Infectious Diseases in Children (www.idinchildren.com)
(06/03) Vol. 16, No. 6, P. 17; Zacharyczuk, Colleen
At the National Immunization Conference in
Chicago, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation representative Dr. Regina Rabinovich
said that while 1.7 million children are taken ill or killed by infectious
diseases every year, many of the diseases are preventable with vaccines already
available. The difficult part is providing two-thirds of the world with access
to vaccines that they currently lack. Rabinovich looked even further, however,
suggesting that those with the financial means should continue working toward a
malaria vaccine, in order to prevent the hundreds of deaths that occur each day
from the tropical disease. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed
more than $1 billion toward development of vaccines.
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whether or not to vaccinate is an important and complex issue and should
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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?"