Results tagged “vaccination”

Everybody panic! It's the H1N1 über-lethal supermegavirus plague! Actually, it's just the regular ol' flu, but simply a mutation that is infecting more people because most of us don't have sufficient built-in immunity for it. And while health authorities started the flu season wondering how they were going to convince people to get themselves vaccinated, the tragic death of twelve-year-old Evan Frustaglio may have been the tipping point that immediately clogged clinics and depleted vaccine supplies. Though enough vaccine is being produced, the bottleneck is in getting the vials filled and shipped quick enough, as well as prioritizing people in higher-risk demographics. Meanwhile, as all of this is going on, corporate executives are paying $2,300 each to step to the front of the line at Toronto's private Medcan Clinic, according to the Star. With three thousand doses of the H1N1 vaccine shipped to Medcan so far, these corporate clients are getting the shot as part of their "enhanced annual checkups," immediately, in the comfort of a warm doctor's office instead of waiting hours in a line with the commoners. Pay-for-privilege bypasses Ontario's single-tier health care laws for procedures considered "medically unnecessary," in the same way Ontarians can pony-up $500 for a quickie MRI across the border in Buffalo.

It's sick season again, but in the wake of scary-sounding names like swine flu and H1N1, there is increased skepticism around the subject of vaccination. Anti-vaccination activists claim that the materials used in vaccines may cause autism, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and even—in the case of the HPV vaccine—cervical cancer, and that their widespread promotion is motivated by corporate profiteering. Vaccination proponents say that the fear-mongering anti-vaccination campaigns are rooted in bad science and misinformation, and that the increasing hysteria is leaving schools and workplaces alarmingly vulnerable to serious, often life-threatening diseases. In some facilities, like hospitals, seasonal vaccination is mandatory, and while the vast majority of medical and science professionals say that the safety of vaccination is not even worth debating, there are still people who are convinced that vaccines are nothing but trouble.