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June 30, 2003
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Taiwan to Bring Forward Anti-Flu Program to
Help Battle SARS"
In its continued fight against severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS), Taiwan has announced that it will push its
influenza vaccination program to prevent flu, because it can be difficult to
distinguish between flu and the early stages of SARS. Health Minister Chen
Chien-jen noted, "If we can contain influenza, then it will be easier for us to
diagnose SARS and to contain it." Taiwan is one of only two regions in the
world that remain on the World Health Organization's watch list for the disease,
though Taiwanese officials say that there have been no new reported cases for 13
days, a cause for cautious optimism.
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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?"