Disclaimer: I am not an anti-vaccine parent. My kids got their shots, including the new-at-the-time chicken pox vaccine. However, I think parents, and not the government, have the right to choose. It's that simple for me.
Not so much for the American Medical Association, who cite the world's most accomplished medical mind computer geek as a source in the opening sentence. (By the way, did you know Bill Gates has a massive amount of money invested in vaccines? Not donated. Invested, As in, hoping to profit from. )
A couple of choice quotes.
"...relying on altruism alone to facilitate clinical trials is potentially unsustainable and ethically contentious."
Uhm, yeah. Ethically contentious. What a great phrase.
"...consensus has generally dictated that payment for volunteers’ trial involvement be modest and limited to compensation for travel, time, and inconvenience only."
So, the logical solution of paying people to test your products is, apparently, too expensive also ethically contentious.
"Compulsory involvement in vaccine studies is one alternative solution that is not as outlandish as it might seem on first consideration."
This should be a "Heh," but it's not funny. According to the AMA, it's unethical to simply pay people who would volunteer to be test subjects in clinical trials, but it's just peachy to use government to force them to test your product.
Couple that with the assumption that these vaccines won't be distributed free of charge, and you can easily imagine a shiny new model of capitalism corporatism emerging - one where we are forced into being guinea pigs for the pharmaceutical companies who will then turn around and charge a premium price to the government's new health care system for the final product.
At least PETA will be happy.
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