Posted on 01/20/2007 12:54:51 PM PST by wagglebee
Let's walk through a medical minefield together.
Merck & Co., a major drug manufacturer, has developed a vaccine called Gardasil that protects against some forms of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus. Another pharmaceutical company is nearly ready to market something similar.
Good.
Experts claim HPV vaccines can protect women against cervical cancer.
Terrific.
For the vaccine to work, it should be administered before a woman becomes sexually active.
Logical.
So, health professionals recommend that girls as young as 11 receive the shots.
Troubling.
There's only one conclusion to be drawn by this tender age limit: more than a few girls are having sex at 12.
These waifs don't need a vaccine. They need morals. And parents to tell them not to have sex in middle school, lest they catch a nasty disease. Like genital warts, which are not prevented by the shots.
Then again, who needs parents when you have state government?
Enter Del. Phillip Hamilton of Newport News. He's introduced HB2035, which would add the HPV vaccine to the list of inoculations girls will need to enter sixth grade in the fall of 2008. You read that correctly. Sixth grade.
This isn't just a single shot. It's a series of three. The cost is about $360, and according to news reports, some health insurance companies don't cover it.
Not to worry. On Friday, Hamilton told me that once the vaccine is mandatory, chances are insurance companies will pay.
Hang on to your wallets, folks. This is going to cost us.
"If it becomes mandatory, the health department has to offer it for free," Hamilton acknowledged.
Of course, taxpayers fund the health departments, so we'll get to pay - twice. Once in our insurance premiums and again in our taxes.
The price for this medical munificence? When I spoke to him, Hamilton didn't have the data.
The delegate does know he's against cancer, though. Hamilton told me that if drug companies develop vaccines against other cancers - prostate or colon, for instance - he'd support making those immunizations mandatory, too.
The justification for all this government meddling in our immune systems requires a leap of logic that Hamilton has made: You must equate the danger of HPV with devastating diseases such as polio.
Sorry, delegate. There's no comparison. HPV can be controlled by behavior. Behavior that shouldn't be going on in middle school.
Parents who think it's a good idea to vaccinate their little girls against sexually transmitted diseases can do it. No need for a mandate.
You may wonder why Hamilton introduced this measure.
Is he responding to parental demand? Is he doing this because pediatricians think it's a swell idea?
Nope. In fact, The Pilot reported that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the vaccine but isn't yet asking states to make it mandatory.
According to news reports, Hamilton, chairman of the House Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions, introduced this bill at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry.
Let's at least be honest and call this the Merck Mandate. How many votes would that get?
So when you get your child immunized against hepatitus you're just encouraging them to be promiscuous and shoot up? Maybe it's just that we'd rather not see our daughters ever develop cervical cancer. According to the CDC more than half of adults develop genital warts during their lifetimes.
http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV-vaccine-hcp.htm
actually, Virginia's being conservative is a myth.
We have the "Kings Dominion Law" which won't allow public schools to open before Labor Day because it would cut into the workforce of its namesake park.
We have to pay a personal property tax on our autos year after year after year, tho a conservative Governor (Gilmore) tried to undo the tax. A Republican legislature made sure to keep it intact so it could be resurrected.
We 'share' revenues for schools so that the wealthier parishes in the northern part of the state pay for educating in other, less affluent, areas.
It goes on and on.
Assembly woman Lieber {the *no spank* Dem.) is introducing AB 22 pupil immunizations: human papillomavirus vaccine legislation...Californians already have enacted into law..the right of minor to have an abortion without little/no parental notification.
Wrong. Herpes can be transmitted without sexual contact. It can be spread with a kiss.
Not Democrats! (sheesh, where did you get THAT from?)
From the fact that a lot more self-described Libertarians voted D in 2006 then in any election in recent history.
Abstinence before marriage followed by monogamy is 100% guaranteed to prevent ALL sexually transmitted diseases.
**********
Indeed we did, and still do.
It might be, and probably would be my decision to vaccinate my hypothetical teenage daughter. That would be up to me. To allow the government to make that choice is abhorrent to me. It is simply unacceptable.
The local news discussed this issue earlier tonight.
One of the reporterettes stated that the vaccine was for "women aged 9 to 26 years old". I turned to my husband and said, "what the hell? are nine year old girls considered women now?"
Later on, I wondered just who is sexualizing our children to the point that nine year old girls are being pushed to have these injections to prevent STD's.
Well, issuing them chastity belts could be cheaper than $360 a nose. It was a rather unhygienic contraption, though.
It's not clear that you understand the issue well. First, the current vaccine does protect against genital warts, and most of the strains of cervical cancer. Second, free vaccine through health departments are only provided to children unable to pay with private insurance, or cash. The program is called VFC (Vaccines For Children) and it is a federal program. Third, the reason the vaccine is recommended at the 11-12 age is because there are a number of other adolescent vaccines provided at the same time. Vaccines are provided on a set schedule and all new vaccines must fit within the schedule to be optimally managed. Fourth, all states provide provisions for parents to opt out of a vaccine program for various reasons. Fifth, there is nothing morally inconsistant with educating girls on abstinance and sexual morals, and providing protection against HPV...some day they may get married and be exposed to HPV by their husbands. HPV can cause cervical cancer which is a devestating disease and can cause death.
Unfortunately in my experience of youngsters in Britain that assumption is correct. In my day 30 years ago it was 14 - 15 now it seems more like 11 - 12.
I would say in households where there is not a strict moral or religious code then 13 is about the age that the majority of girls become sexual active.
"(Civil) libertarians" may not be Civil and Economic libertarians, dog.
Well, good for you. But you weren't forced to get those vaccinations as a condition of being allowed to continue to attend school as a child, which is what this law would do.
That is true, which is why schools shouldn't hand out contraceptives to students.
True. What are you getting at?
actually, Virginia's being conservative is a myth
hmmm, I guess you are right.
The HPV vaccine is recommended for ages up to 26, correct. That means my daughter can wait till she has reached her majority to get the vaccine and wait till marriage to have sex and she should be fine.
I wondering where you got your data when you state, "From the fact that a lot more self-described Libertarians voted D in 2006 then in any election in recent history." Are those capital L libertarians or civil libertarians?
But I do know that many libertarians are excessively pacifist (anti-war); a weakness of the Party, IMO.
Those are people who identify themselves to exit pollers as libertarians.
Figuring out who's voting for who amongst the actual libertarian party is worthless. You can fit them all in a shoe closet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.