vaccination--immunisation

[isali]

Greetings all.....if there be no objection from the host of this site I would like to enliven some discourse on the subject of vaccinations and immunisations. It is a simultaneous political/philosophical and health issue that has the offering of a clinical response. It is a subject which is moving as an undercurrent in the U.S. and w/o sunstantive discourse. I take it from recent posts on this site that the subject is politically present and health agency driven in other countries as well. The core issue as a physician, in my perception, is that of the Right of the individual to the autonomy of their health over that of the State's Right to impose its will in the name of public health concerns. The secondary issue is whether the responsibility for an individual's health belongs with the individual or the physician?

I would seek to narrow the responses to the address of small pox and anthrax in advance of its presence in the population and post introduction into the population.

regards,
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