"Budget Cuts Reduce State Supplies of Flu Vaccine"
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The Massachusetts Department of Public Health
will purchase 19 percent fewer adult flu vaccine doses in preparation for this
year's flu season, equal to about 132,000 doses. As a result, state-run clinics
are increasing their efforts to get the elderly and other at-risk groups
vaccinated before supplies run low. The state still plans to have 560,000 doses
of flu vaccine by November, however, and
officials said that anyone requesting vaccination at a state-run
clinic will be able to get the shot. The initial request of 700,000 flu vaccines
was made during a time of increased requests for the vaccines due to the threat
of anthrax and its much-publicized flulike symptoms. The state Legislature has
allocated $20 million for adult vaccines, which is $2 million less than had been
requested; children's vaccine supplies will not be affected by the budget
reduction, though the state's stocks of vaccine for pneumococcal disease and
hepatitis A and B reportedly will also be reduced.
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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."
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"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?"