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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: 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.)