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Anti-Vaxxers Defeated: NY Bans Exemptions as Doctors Vote to Step up Fight:
Anti-vaccine advocates received a blow in New York Thursday as state lawmakers banned non-medical exemptions based on religious beliefs—and there may be more blows coming.
Also on Thursday, the American Medical Association adopted a new policy to step up its fight against such non-medical exemptions. The AMA, the country's largest physicians' group and one of the largest spenders on lobbying, has always strongly support pediatric vaccination and opposed non-medical exemptions. But under the new policy changes, the association will now "actively advocate" for states to eliminate any laws that allow for non-medical exemptions.
"As evident from the measles outbreaks currently impacting communities in several states, when individuals are not immunized as a matter of personal preference or misinformation, they put themselves and others at risk of disease," AMA Board Member E. Scott Ferguson, M.D. said in a statement. "The AMA strongly supports efforts to eliminate non-medical exemptions from immunization, and we will continue to actively urge policymakers to do so."
The religious exemption ban in New York comes at a critical time. The state is at the forefront of a nationwide resurgence of measles, with active outbreaks that have sickened hundreds and splintered into other states.
"This administration has taken aggressive action to contain the measles outbreak, but given its scale, additional steps are needed to end this public health crisis," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement after signing the ban on religious exemptions. "While I understand and respect freedom of religion, our first job is to protect the public health, and by signing this measure into law, we will help prevent further transmissions and stop this outbreak right in its tracks."
Sudden outbreak of common sense?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @08:28AM (3 children)
Compulsory mass vaccines for "everyone" should be those that:
1) have decent protection for years or even decades
2) side effects and risks are low.
3) the risk/impact to the unvaccinated is high
4) the benefit/cost of the vaccine overall is good
5) are paid for by the State/taxpayers (e.g. "free" to all).
Stuff like measles vaccines are in this category.
Note if 5) is not true in your country and people have to pay for themselves and their kids then your country is saying that mass vaccination with that vaccine isn't really that important right? ;)
Whereas I'm not convinced for stuff like flu vaccines which have mediocre or even no protection for months, are expensive and you "need" to take them every year:
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/vaccineeffect.htm [cdc.gov]
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/15/493982110/yes-it-is-possible-to-get-your-flu-shot-too-soon [npr.org]
I'll be all for compulsory mass vaccinations with flu vaccines once they use one that works as well as a measles vaccine. Till then it'll seem more like compulsory profit for the vaccine manufacturers.
I know about the herd immunity stuff but it's often the vaccine proof flu that kills the old people. The flu variants we're used to year in and out and the vaccines work with are likely to be the flus that most of us will survive. Whereas the unexpected mutant bird+pig+human flu from China/Africa/Wherever that the available flu vaccine doesn't do shit against, is the one that hits even the healthy hard and kills the weak. If people are weak/ immune compromised require that all their caregivers and visitors have had the flu vaccines. That'll achieve almost the same thing without wasting billions on vaccinating everyone with a vaccine that might not even work.
If your country is rich enough to give everything to everyone for "free" then go ahead, but for other countries there's stuff like opportunity costs, spending $$$$$$ to vaccinate everyone every year with vaccines that aren't that effective is a waste of money that would be more beneficial spent elsewhere.
For example, you might even get more bang for the buck by providing zinc supplements to those who'll benefit from them: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866616/ [nih.gov]
5 cents per pill at retail prices (so should be cheaper if in bulk) and improves things vs other diseases as well: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3231897/ [nih.gov]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2771250/ [nih.gov]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 17 2019, @12:37PM (1 child)
This article, for instance, has a LOT of substantiating links to scientific publications. Dismiss it wholesale as "anti-vaxxer propaganda" at your peril.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/06/effectiveness-of-flu-vaccine.aspx [mercola.com]
By contrast, Tamiflu (oseltamivir) if used from the day of onset of symptoms, works like a charm; firsthand experience. If you want to protect yourself and your family for real, have a pack of these in your home.
By the way, make it your habit to avoid touching handrails and such in public places, as much as possible, and epidemic after epidemic will just pass you by. The primary route of flu transmission is this, and not directly by air from the sneezing sufferers that everyone fears.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday June 17 2019, @04:56PM
Nope. Please do not visit Joe Mercola's site. The man is a public menace who hawks BS cures and BS products, and seemingly will endorse any quackery to put money in his own pocket.
I'll admit that probably 50-70% of info his site is legit, so I don't know what the linked article says. But a significant other portion of it is hawking BS, making BS up, and probably 10% of it is absolute looney-land BS (to be classified along with the ancient aliens, flat-earthers, and other weirdness).
So no, don't visit his site. Don't click on his links to give him money, even unintentionally through clickbaity articles that will give him ad revenue.
(And no, this is not a kneejerk reaction. This is well-known to anyone who believes in the scientific method. Mercola is a menace to society, whose quackery likely contributes to hundreds of deaths each year, if not more, a lot of them potentially due to his anti-vaxxer BS.)
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday June 17 2019, @11:24PM
Even, if you don't get the flu vaccine, there are things you can do to keep from getting it and / or protect others from getting it when you have it. Emphasis, mine.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/flu/in-depth/flu-shots/art-20048000 [mayoclinic.org]
Your co-workers, don't thank you for getting them sick, because you just won't stay home.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"