The shock of the Kent (UK) meningitis outbreak and why it could happen here

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr’s nonsensical attacks on Public Health in general, and vaccines in particular, have set up our country for preventable diseases such as the meningitis B outbreak in Kent.

The Guardian reports:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/20/the-guardian-view-on-meningitis-in-kent-we-must-not-take-public-health-systems-for-granted

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Picklebobble2 · 61-69, M Best Comment

This outbreak in the UK is evidence (again) that short-sighted policy decisions to (supposedly) protect others by (try not to laugh here 🙄) 'allowing people to build their own natural defence' against common outbreaks of communicable diseases', rather than immunise everyone in communal settings,(knowing full well it's likely to happen again...as previous experience has shown us) clearly doesn't work.

Spend the money and vaccinate; test; trace; track, and do it properly.

KunsanVeteran · M

@Picklebobble2 Decades of data support immunizations. They are generally safe, effective, and cost effective.

Picklebobble2 · 61-69, M

@KunsanVeteran Especially when you have the evidence of what happens when you don't in front of you.

I don't know. Maybe this is all part of restructuring the cost of care.

Far easier to insist that students are responsible for themselves.
That way maybe universities would close their halls of residence and sell either the building and/or the land they're built on and pocket the money raised (after the tax people have had their cut of course) as government funding squeezes ever tighter.

It would certainly have private landlords rubbing their hands woth glee.

I notice nobody's making the same noises about prisons; hospitals; ports; airports...

HootyTheNightOwl

So predictable that even an AI can call it out...

The Guardian tends to prioritize socialized medicine and collective responsibility. If there is a meningitis outbreak, their reporting will likely focus on:

[quote]
Systemic Failures: They may blame the government or local health authorities for a lack of funding, slow vaccine rollouts, or poor living conditions (like student housing) that allowed the bacteria to spread.

Health Inequality: They often highlight how the outbreak disproportionately affects marginalized or lower-income communities.

Even though it’s an opinion piece, The Guardian wouldn't get the basic facts of the Kent outbreak wrong (the number of cases or the location). However, the "Why" is where the bias lies. They are linking the biological event (the bacteria spreading) directly to a political event (funding choices).

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KunsanVeteran · M

@whowasthatmaskedman I think that Democrats will be much more responsive to their constituents and their needs. There will be quite a bit of “low hanging fruit” as Democrats move to reverse many of tRUMP’s most odious policies and end the paralysis of our legal system for example.

Long overdue immigration reform (not the violent, lawlessness that Demented Donnie & Stephen Miller gave us) can proceed in a bipartisan manner—this could have happened during Joe Biden’s administration, but tRUMP killed it to creat a straw man to campaign against.

Just as tRUMP set up the Afghanistan withdrawal for failure, then dumped it on President Biden, so will he dump his illegal and ludicrous war in Iran on the Democrats to extract us from. He’ll be setting them up to take the fall for all the economic & other catastrophes that will occur as a result of his mess.

The Democrats need to be ready with strong leaders to hold the tRUMP misadministration accountable for their crimes and atrocious performance—no more Merrick Garlands!

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@KunsanVeteran I accept your statements. But essentially they are all social arrangements and politics. You are now in a country that is $40 Trillion in debt and getting worse daily, with the rest of the world p**sed off at you. The "but we want to play nice now" argument isnt going to cut it.😷

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