Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1986
ISSN
0090-0036
Publisher
American Public Health Association
Language
en-US
Abstract
After decades of reports on the need for considered
public policy on immunization,' it is time for action. The
"problem" of immunization is complex, but the constituent complexities have been recognized for years. In a recent report on Vaccine Supply and Innovation, the Institute of Medicine referred to vaccines as "an elegant solution to one of the perennial problems of the human race-infectious
disease." Vaccines are effective, inexpensive, simple to produce, and easy to deliver. They have succeeded in quelling the threat to public health of such formerly devastating diseases as smallpox, poliomyelitis, and diphtheria. Today, however, the prospects for continued success in the development and distribution of vaccines are growing dim. If there were an American Public Health Association clock marking the time remaining until vaccines become either unavailable or unacceptable-like the clock of the Union of Concerned Scientists marking the threat of nuclear war-it would stand perilously close to midnight in the United
States.
Recommended Citation
Wendy K. Mariner & Mary E. Clark,
Confronting the Immunization Problem: Proposals for Compensation Reform
,
76
American Journal of Public Health
703
(1986).
Available at:
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.76.6.703
