PLATFORM : Worth the Price
Flu is bad, but it used to be worse. Whooping cough, measles and polio epidemics were more devastating than flu, but immunizations can eliminate them--for a cost. Developing, marketing and insuring immunizations is very expensive and, of course, the price is passed down to the patient.
Worldwide, the level of immunization has dramatically improved because of World Health Organization-sponsored free immunizations. In the United States, free immunization clinics are funded through state health departments, which are chronically underfunded, made worse by increases in cost and the addition of new vaccines.
Many people can’t afford immunizations and insurance often does not cover them. So, unless (people know about) the clinics, many are forced to do without. The recent epidemics of measles and the increase in whooping cough cases in the United States testify to this problem, and unless it is addressed, we as a country will be worse off than some Third World countries.
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