Posted on 02/02/2007 1:28:44 PM PST by YCTHouston
AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry ordered today that schoolgirls in Texas must be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, making Texas the first state to require the shots.
The girls will have to get Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer.
Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass laws in state legislatures across the country mandating it Gardasil vaccine for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
Details of the order were not immediately available, but the governor's office confirmed to The Associated Press that he was signing the order and he would comment Friday afternoon.
Perry has several ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, his former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.
Toomey was expected to be able to woo conservative legislators concerned about the requirement stepping on parent's rights and about signaling tacit approval of sexual activity to young girls. Delisi, as head of the House public health committee, which likely would have considered legislation filed by a Democratic member, also would have helped ease conservative opposition.
Perry also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.
It wasn't immediately clear how long the order would last and whether the legislation was still necessary. However it could have been difficult to muster support from lawmakers who champion abstinence education and parents' rights.
Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion rights and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base.
But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different than the one that protects children against polio.
"If there are diseases in our society that are going to cost us large amounts of money, it just makes good economic sense, not to mention the health and well being of these individuals to have those vaccines available," he said.
Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit stating that he or she objected to the vaccine for religious or philosophical reasons.
Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say mandates take away parents' rights to be the primary medical decision maker for their children.
The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.
The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil — at $360 for the three-shot regimen — were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects.
Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Susan Crosby, the group's president, also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.
A top official from Merck's vaccine division sits on Women in Government's business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
Oh, well then, maybe we should put all the girls on birth control pills too!
I can't believe Perry beat California to this!
About 10,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the US each year, and about 4000 die. The death rate has gone way down in the last 50 years because of pap smears, but it still has a rather high mortality.
There is another mortality that no one else here seems to have mentionned - fetal mortality. If a woman has abnormal cells on a pap smear, the doctor will do a biopsy. Depending on the extent of the abnormal cells, there may be a cone biopsy, which can weaken the cervix and cause pregnancy loss. I corresponded online with a woman who lost first a single baby and then twins after a cone biopsy, and another who lost one. It was a concern in my s-i-l's pregnancies as well.
There ARE other infections besides HPV that can lead to abnormal cells, and the woman who lost three babies found out she had a mycoplasma infection when abnormal cells were found again after the second loss - treatment cleared them up. Too late for her babies. It would be wise to be screened for other infections before having a cone biopsy.
Mrs VS
Your post number 57 is right on. What an intrusive nitwit and meanwhile the illegals flood in carrying God knows what.
This is what troubles conservatives. Sure we can support the war, but our boders are a colander. Sure we're for reasonable social policies, but a std vaccine? Meanwhile Hep carriers are making our Big Macs but are unchecked? V's wife
In California, and the other states Merck is working, they're going through the legislature - much too slow a process. Much easier and quicker to get the Governor to just issue an order with none of that silly representation nonsense.
It is amazing...the commercials are everywhere to pimp this gardasil...they ran commercials almost exclusively on XM for 5 months....
Sorry, I did word that badly. Cervical cancer is caused 95% of the time by HPV, but it's not the case that 95% of people infected with HPV actually get cervical cancer.
It's a matter of priorities and taking the path of the least resistance..I guess.
sw
Yep, take a look at the donors list...
Nobody has said this vaccine is a cure for cancer.
Being called an idiot by a liberal is no insult and it is also not unexpected.
Since one half of all Americans have been infected by the harmless and ubiquitous HPV it means that one half of all women have been infected, yet only 1% of all women ever develop CC. Since HPV strikes both men and women equally, you would expect to see an equal distribution pattern of CC and Penile cancer, yet the disease is extremely rare in men.
CC starts as a hyperplasia which progresses to a dysplasia with a small number of cases progressing onto neoplasia, of which even a smaller number become malignant. Yet since CC develops only from one cell what happens to the millions of other cervical cell that are infected??
There is NO, I repeat NO direct evidence, no peer-reviewed primary research study proving that HPV causes CC, only retrospective studies and the Merck trials. You will notice that the vaccine does not protect against all HPV strains and that Merck uses the word "May" protect in their advertisements.
An alternative hypothesis for the reason that HPV is detected in some CC cells is that dysplasias MAY trigger a simultaneous HPV growth. HPV is not malignant, and CC is NOT contagious.
Anyone who doesn't think the AP's coverage is a political hit is plumb ignorant. If this were a Democrat governnor, they'd canonize him.
And think of the "mean old anti-abortion Republicans" stories that can't be written for the rest of the Session!
I covered this in my blog tonight.
Somehow cancer has now been downgraded to genital warts.
If that's what this is about, I'd oppose it.
Just to make sure, though, downgrade it to chapped lips.
You've got some serious partisan blinders on.
I'm conservative and pro-life first, Republican second.
You have called it an anti-cancer vaccine several times, and you've dishonestly insinuated that opponents of this scheme are opposed to stopping cervical cancer. If it were an anti-cancer vaccine it would either kill cervical cancer cells or assist the body's immune system in killing them. That is what a vaccine does by definition.
The HPV vaccine does no such thing though. It does assist the body in killing genital wart viruses. But it doesn't kill cancer, ergo it is NOT an anti-cancer vaccine.
If you equate getting pregnant to cancer, I suppose that's a fair argument.
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