Latest GOP economic stupidity: big slashes to the CDC immunization program
Jenny McCarthy and Bill Maher will be happy.
This is a monumentally stupid decision. Outbreaks cost far more money to treat than vaccination does. Vaccination is cost-effective, more responsible, and the obvious best way to treat communicable diseases.
One of the stupidest economic decisions yet from a party that’s been coming up with a whole passel of them.
The House GOP’s 2011 budget would chop $156 million from the Centers for Disease Control’s funding for immunization and respiratory diseases. The GOP reductions are likely to hit the CDC’s support for state and local immunization programs, the agency’s ability to evaluate which vaccines are working, and its work to educate the public about recommended vaccines for children, teenagers, and other susceptible populations. The CDC especially focuses on serving lower-income families who receive vaccines at state and local health offices and community health clinics, rather than a private doctor’s office.
