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Submission + - Time To Remove 'Philosophical' Exemption From Vaccine Requirements? (mlive.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Michigan has a problem. Over the past decade, the number of unvaccinated kindergartners has spiked. "Nearly half of the state’s population lives in counties with kindergarten vaccination rates below the level needed for "herd immunity," the public health concept that when at least 93 percent of people are vaccinated, their immunity protects the vulnerable and prevents the most contagious diseases from spreading." Surprise, surprise, the state is now in the midst of a whooping cough outbreak. How do these kids get into public schools without being vaccinated? Well, Michigan is among the 20 U.S. states that allow "philosophical" objections to the vaccine requirements for schoolchildren. (And one of the 46 states allowing religious exemption.) A new editorial is now calling for an end to the "philosophical" exemption.

The article says, "Those who choose not to be vaccinated and who choose not to vaccinate their children allow a breeding ground for diseases to grow and spread to others. They put healthy, vaccinated adults at risk because no vaccine is 100 percent effective. They especially put the most vulnerable at risk — infants too young to be vaccinated, the elderly, people with medical conditions that prevent vaccination, and those undergoing cancer treatments or whose immune systems have been weakened." They also encourage tightening the restrictions on religious and medical waivers so that people don't just check a different box on the exemption form to get the same result. "They are free to continue believing vaccines are harmful, even as the entire medical and scientific communities try in vain to tell them otherwise. But they should not be free to endanger the lives of everyone else with their views. "

Submission + - Doctors Replace Patient's Damaged Thoracic Vertebrae with 3d Printed Replica (3dprint.com)

Submitted by ErnieKey
ErnieKey writes: Earlier this month, surgeons at Zhejiang University in China, performed a surgery to remove 2 damaged vertebrae from a 21-year-old patient. In their place they inserted a 3d printed titanium implant which was shaped to the exact size needed for the patient's body. The surgery which took doctors much less time and provided significantly less risk was completely successful and the patient is expected to make a full recovery. This is said to be the first ever surgery involving 3d printing vertebrae in order to replace a patient's thoracic vertebrae.

Submission + - Bitcoin Value Passes $400 Ahead of Virtual Currency Hearing at US Senate (ibtimes.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The value of bitcoin has surged through the $400 barrier for the first time, as unprecedented growth sees the virtual currency's value quadruple in just three months.

Meanwhile, on 18 November, a Senate subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on virtual currencies like bitcoin and its lesser-known competitors litecoin and altcoin. The hearing comes after a unit of the Treasury Department earlier this year issued guidelines stating virtual currencies should be subject to the same anti-money-laundering laws as traditional currency-transfer businesses like Western Union.

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