"Urgent Need to Make Expensive Vaccines Affordable"
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In order to ensure universal coverage, Indian
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is demanding that childhood vaccinations
decrease in price. Currently, almost 45 percent of Indian children are not
fully immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases due to cost, and up to 14
percent of children do not receive vaccinations at all, according to Vajpayee.
The prime minister launched the Universal Immunization Program, which will
include hepatitis B vaccinations for about 2 million infants, in an attempt to
decrease the country's high childhood death rate. Vajpayee also calls for
improvements in child health, family planning, sanitation, drinking water
quality, health education, and auto-destruct syringes.
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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?"