"When many cures are offered for a disease, it means the disease is not curable" -Anton Chekhov
''Once you tell people there's a cure for something, the more likely they are to pressure doctors to prescribe it.'' -Robert Ehrlich, drug advertising executive.
"Opinions are like sphincters, everyone has one." - Chris Rangel
The Better Part of Valor? The nation's medical societies are going public with their reservations about voluntary smallpox vaccination. I had my say about the American Academy of Pediatrics and their stance yesterday. It’s really disingenuous of these organizations to make public statements when they’ve made no effort to debate or examine the issue themselves. They’ve only done what they always do, and that is to accept the recommendations of the Advisory Panel on Immunization Practices indiscriminately. These groups, the AMA, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the American Academy of Pediatrics made their positions known in June when the Advisory Panel announced its decision. The people who head up the academies’ own committees also sit on the Advisory Panel. It’s unfortunate for all of us that they’ve decided to take a public stance without actually considering the issue and its implications for their physician members and the patients they treat.
And Another Thing:: It just amazes me that one year after the anthrax attack these officials can't expand their imaginations to accept the very real threat of bioterrorism. Yes, smallpox vaccination isn't as benign as our current immunizations, but its risks are lower than the disease by a factor of 300,000. Smallpox kills one in three of the people it infects. Smallpox vaccination would be expected to kill only one in a million. posted by Sydney on
10/08/2002 06:54:00 AM
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