A department spokesperson confirmed Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham had ordered his staff to stop engaging in media campaigns and community health fairs to encourage vaccinations, even as the state has experienced a surge in influenza.

Abraham’s announcement occurred the same day vaccine skepticRobert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in by the U.S. Senate to serve as President Donald Trump’s health secretary.

In a separate letter posted on the department’s website, Louisiana’s surgeon general decried “blanket government mandates” for vaccines and criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 vaccination push. Individuals should make their own decisions about vaccinations, Abraham said.

  • @Hazor@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Sure, people should be able to make their own decisions. But they’ll be able to make much better-informed decisions if you do your job and educate the populace about the life-saving benefits of vaccines. This guy should be stripped of his medical license.

    • @WaxiestSteam69@lemmy.world
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      193 months ago

      I live in Louisiana. You can’t educate about vaccines here. Most people do not believe anything officials say about vaccines.

    • @1984@lemmy.today
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      3 months ago

      Ask the people with side effects that ruined their life about how great they are.

      Its amazing for everyone else of course but everyone is taking a small risk by vaccinating themselves.

      Society thinks the risks are worth taking since the majority are going to be fine. But on a personal level, I support anyone not wanting to take that risk.

      • Match!!
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        3 months ago

        shit buddy i guess I’ll ask the one guy who had a bad reaction about it

        edit: he said it’s cool and the benefits greatly outweigh the risks

        • @1984@lemmy.today
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          13 months ago

          Im not here to change your mind. That is the point. You decide what you want to do, and so do i. The problem starts when you want to tell me what I need to do in my life, to my body, so you can feel good.

            • @1984@lemmy.today
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              3 months ago

              If giving my opinion means you think Im an asshole then yes.

              But in real life, people have different opinions. I dont think it makes them assholes. I like new ideas, new ways of looking at things.

      • SeaJ
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        133 months ago

        I will take a 1 in 10 million risk of having a bad side affect from a vaccine compared with the 1 in 100 or even 1 in 1000 chance of bad side effects from something like tetanus, measles, chicken pox, etc.

        We also don’t give vaccines to everyone. If someone is at a higher risk of having negative side effects, they do not necessarily get the one they will have a reaction to. For instance, my wife is on immunosuppresants and was never able to receive the MMR vaccine because it uses a live attenuated form of the viruses and she would likely get a full blown case of each. But that also puts her at severe risk when there is some numb nuts in the area who didn’t get vaccinated because “they did their research” and came to a wrong conclusion that vaccines are super harmful and cause autism and mercury poisoning and have government trackers in them but then end up getting a case of the measles and spreading it to dozens of people.

        • @1984@lemmy.today
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          13 months ago

          You obviously have personal reasons and you will feel like everyone needs to vaccinate because it puts your wife at risk.

      • @HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        3 months ago

        I get being afraid, but no one should be making big decisions based on fear alone.

        The prevalence of primary care provider (PCP)-documented vaccine allergy in Canada was 0.037% (395/1,055,677) and of polyethylene glycol (PEG) allergy was 0.0009% (10/1,055,677). In total, 0.01% of patients had a documented allergy to either PEG or Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CIMCP) (135/1,055,677).

        None of the patients with PEG allergy had a documented allergy to a CIMCP. Patients with vaccine allergy and PEG allergy were significantly more likely to have other atopic comorbidities, including asthma (P < .001 for both), eczema (P < .001 and P = .001, respectively), rhinitis (P = .002 and P < .001, respectively), and food allergy (P < .001 for both). Significantly higher rates of depression (P < .001 and P < .001, respectively) and anxiety (P = .003 and P < .001, respectively) were found in those with vaccine allergy, or PEG allergy, than those without vaccine allergy or PEG allergy.

        https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8482528/

        On an anecdotal level I had a friend who suffered from eczema and had a negative reaction to a COVID vaccine. It was bad enough he spent 2-3 weeks in hospital. BUT he’s also an addict so I’m not sure how much that contributed to the severity of it.

        • @1984@lemmy.today
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          3 months ago

          Almost everyone in this thread supports vaccines because they are afraid what happens if some people dont vaccinate. If it is a choice (which it is in most countries). Then they hate these people and want them kicked out of society.

          I think its crazy how people are acting over this. You could see the same pattern in nazi Germany. An entire group of people were hated and killed because the majority felt they were spreading decease. What is the difference here?

          Maybe its good to have threads like this so people can think about their reactions. Is this how they want to be as people?

          • @HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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            93 months ago

            My grandma was a nurse in the polio wards, taking care of the people in iron lungs. Now imagine getting polio and living in this for the rest of your life.

            • @1984@lemmy.today
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              13 months ago

              What about the people with side effects from the vaccine? You act as if there is no risk, no danger at all from vaccines. Its like eating an apple. But its not.

              • @HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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                73 months ago

                The risk from getting measles is huge. You can nie from it, or you can get over it but lose all the immunity you’ve gained in your life – which leaves you doubly exposed to even a common cold or regular flu.

                Please educate yourself on the risks.

                • @1984@lemmy.today
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                  13 months ago

                  I was just thinking about the covid vaccines. As a kid, I was vaccinated against all kinds of stuff im sure. But I havent re-vaccinated since then.

      • @Kekzkrieger@feddit.org
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        103 months ago

        See the thing is, yes there is a very very very small risk about having life altering side effects that nobody wants.

        That is not denied by anyone, the great benefit of taking that risk is that whatever the disease is is much much much worse.

        Don’t believe me fine, as many of you people say, do your research. Find a disease where there is a vaccine. Compare how many people got hurt/died by the vaccine vs having that disease.

        Be sure to pick one that has been around for a long time because then there wont be an excuse for long term effects since they have been studied.

        Im happy to change my mind about vaccines if you can provide me with one, just one of the many diseases where we are better of having the diaease than getting the vaccine. What does it take to change your mind ?

        • @1984@lemmy.today
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          3 months ago

          No, I dont want you to change your mind. That is the entire point. We should not all think the same about vaccines, like some sort of group think or religion.

          Im happy you have decided they are right for you. But I think your decision doesnt apply to me. Im an adult, im intelligent (even though people in this thread probably dont think so), and I make my own decisions and think about how they affect my life.

          I dont take the risk of vaccination so strangers can feel better.

          • @DjMeas@lemm.ee
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            53 months ago

            A genuine question: What about people who don’t get vaccinated and can potentially spread their diseases? Does that not affect others just like choosing the risk of getting vaccinated?

            • @1984@lemmy.today
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              Yes it does affect others. Let me ask you a question. Do you live your life so it doesnt affect others? We have plenty of people drinking alcohol, causing massive costs to society, and sometimes deadly accidents with innocent people dying. We have people driving cars, polluting the environment so they can get to work faster and have a comfortable life.

              There are many many examples of people putting their own comfort ahead of other peoples. Im sure I dont have to list a lot of them.

              The point is, I put my own comfort ahead of other people when it comes to vaccines. I put myself first, because of the possible side effects.

              • @DjMeas@lemm.ee
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                53 months ago

                I agree that it’s impossible not to affect others. Every action has a reaction which I hope sparks something positive from my end at least.

                To give some perspective, I received my kidney transplant at 37 shortly after starting dialysis at 36 due to something out of my control. My wife almost passed from stage 3 breast cancer in 2017. I admit I’m biased and don’t want to see others suffer from preventable diseases but do understand that everything has an inherent risk, including vaccines (present though smaller), and it’s up to the player to play their hand as they see fit.

          • @Kekzkrieger@feddit.org
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            03 months ago

            Saying you are so closed up on your opinion is whats the difference between us because i am happy to change my mind, if im wrong.

            You on the other hand treat it like a religion because no matter what you’re not gonna change.

            We forget how horrible some of these diseases were because we dont live with them anymore. They got erradicated because of vaccines.

            If we, as a collective, dont get vaccinate they may come back at some point and then many people die because of stupid decisions like yours.

            • @1984@lemmy.today
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              13 months ago

              Yeah I don’t change my mind on this. I will take the vaccines when there are no side effects.

      • @timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works
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        93 months ago

        And I support those people living in the fucking woods and never, ever making contact with anyone. After all, it’s their choice.

        They don’t want to play by society’s rules then they can fuck right off out of society.

          • @HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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            73 months ago

            In my society nobody chose to be unvaccinated, because many of them had friends or family who gotten polio and died or was crippled.

            Back then it was also manditory. Nurses came to the schools and you got vaccinated, no questions asked.

                • @1984@lemmy.today
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                  13 months ago

                  If you are vaccinated, you are in theory protected against that decease, and it doesnt matter if others are not.

  • @Spacehooks@reddthat.com
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    283 months ago

    Abortion = murder But not vaccinating is freedom of rights? Bruh if you child dies from a preventable disease that’s murder. You killed them with your choice just like not putting on a seat belt for them. You failed a parent to protect them by being afraid of what? autism? them turning into a gay frog? Having magneto powers?

  • @ninjabard@lemmy.world
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    103 months ago

    Fitting his name is Abraham as he’ll be able to count the infected and dead like he would count the stars in the sky.

  • madjo
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    73 months ago

    In the middle of a measles outbreak? These people are playing with lives! Poor kids

  • Prehensile_cloaca
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    53 months ago

    We should embargo and blockade the state so their inevitable introduction of preventable diseases doesn’t spread to other parts of the union.

    Same for any state that wants to walk back decades of medical advancement. They’re a stark and Real danger.

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
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    43 months ago

    if you support louisiana now the world is a better place. do not force vaxxination, education or even basic rules on those free people so they can be freebto leave this planet. bird flu, naybe some pox or just Covid2…the US seems to be cleansing itself.