Posted on 02/05/2007 7:13:36 AM PST by Froufrou
Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer.
By using an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents-rights groups who fear such a requirement would seem to condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children.
Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade -- meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 -- will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.
Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.
Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion 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 from the one that protects children against polio.
"The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer," Perry said.
Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil 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.
Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's 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.
The governor also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.
The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.
Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing affidavits objecting to vaccines on religious or philosophical reasons. Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say such requirements interfere with parents' rights to make medical decisions for their children.
WHAT PERRY DID WAS WRONG!
DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!
Maybe reading a statement from a state legistlator will make it more understandable? Dan Patrick used to be host of KSEV and ran for state representative this past election and WON.
The research I have come across indicates there are at least 100 strains of the Human Papillomavirus and the vaccination, Gardasil, only treats four of them. The American Cancer Society reports most women do not get cervical cancer from HPV and the National Institutes of Health report more than 90% of all HPV cases are harmless and go away without treatment. Currently, some parents opt to have their daughters vaccinated without a state mandate. At this point, I believe the optional vaccination alternative is the correct approach.
Now...go take a civics course before posting on Free Republic again. Maybe then it will make sense why so many Texans are pissed off.
I just tried to google the number of cervical cancer cases in 2006. Merck has invested - should I say infested? - the market with their 'information' on so many levels there are no stats to be found.
If it's such a big deal, wouldn't you think they'd WANT us to know HOW MANY cases there were last year?
The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2006, over 9,700 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 3,700 women will die from this cancer in the U.S.
From the ACIP link in post # 139
This HPV virus is circulating all over the place like wildfire. A woman doesn't need to be promiscuous to become afflicted by it and if a vaccine is available it makes all the sense in the world to have it voluntarily administered. My knucklehead liberal sister-in-law had cervical cancer and could have died, all due to her previous HPV exposure.
~ Blue Jays ~
Thank you. I googled 'cervical cancer cases in 2006' and I would swear everything was a Merck site.
Ostensibly, 3700 is not an epidemic. But, looking closer at the nature of people, it could easily get to be an epidemic. Still, I'm for more information on the drug.
I just read at another site there are 166 HPV viruses and that only 3-4 are snuffed by Gardasil. Why not wait one year, if one so CHOOSES, to see what the competition comes up with? A better product?
Merck is in a hurry to get their patent...
Am I the only one in this thread that remembers the book "White Plague" by Herbert. The Wiki entry does not do it justice...
I'll go and look. I'm guessing polio?
The vaccine just came out in June.
Also, I'll wait until my girls are 16 because that is when kids start getting more sexually active.
And Perry is in a hurry to get his check.
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According to Census 2000, 281.4 million people were counted in the United States — 143.4 million of whom were female, so 143,250,000 females divided by 9,700 women who actually got cancer = 14768.04.
One woman in approximately 15,000 will actually get cancer from the HPV virus and approximately a third of those will die from it.
Here are some stats from other causes of death-
More than 2800 people die each year from choking
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (aspirin/ibuprofen) are linked to 16,000 deaths each year.
About 36,000 Americans die on average per year from the complications of flu.
So we need to immunize children based on a projected amount of promiscuity to avoid a disease that kills only a slightly higher amount of people than choking and a much lower amount than over the counter painkillers do?
BAN ASPRIN...it's for the childruuuun.
Then you provide it for free.
But tell me why should my daughter who isn't having sex get the vaccine? She certainly isn't spreading it to anyone, so why should she get it.
Before she has sex she may want it, but hopefully I'll raise her to be an adult before she has sex, and she can make up her own mind what to do with her own body.
But did you also read that most of the people who die from cervical cancer are the women who have never had pap smears in their lives or in the past 5 years.
How about forcing women to have pap smears every year? I think that would be better than forcing girls to get a vaccine.
It's a crap shoot, right? If your daughter abstains, there's no problem. If she doesn't abstain, then it may be too late.
It all depends on whether you're a "better safe than sorry" type or have absolute trust in your daughter to make the right decisions type.
So the actions of the governor of Texas somehow discredited the entire medical profession? Did you read the ACIP meeting minutes? (Just scroll up in the thread until you see my post about it.) How many of the participants of that meeting do you think had even heard of Governor Perry when they voted on their recommendations?
I trust that you will now never, ever take professional advice or treatment from an MD. (Or a DO; they're practically the same thing these days.) You should probably also do away with any and all OTC medications that might have been developed in concert with medical professionals. After all, they've been discredited by Perry. I'm not sure exactly how a questionable executive order discredits work done independently, years ago, but whatever. It's a medical conspiracy. I'll add it to the military-industrial-entertainment-banking complex.
I don't have absolute trust, that's why I intend on being around a lot when my daughters are teenagers.
There is no way I would have had sex at my parents house (don't think I ever have) because they were around so much. I don't know where else I would have had sex. I would have had to have been very sneaky.
I'm also not letting them date until they are 18 which will be their senior year in high school. They'll be 18 by the time the senior prom rolls around.
It has come to that in my county, and I suspect all over the country....
..when our granddaughter was born....(premature) she was given some grace time because of her low birth weight...
..but even in the hospital NICU they started pushing the HepB and others...
We discovered there might be ONE pediatrician in the whole county who will wait or work with the parents on giving vaccines.
The others comply....and if you don't, they won't take you as a patient!!
Probably not easy being a parent. I see things all the time that shock me.
You didn't say, "when it has been commercially available for six years." You said, "when it has been around for six years" (paraphrased). It has been around, in people, around the world, for over five years now. It wouldn't be commercially available if it hadn't been tested in humans. (Although that brain bug, the idea that it hasn't been tested, does seem to exist on this thread.)
Also, I'll wait until my girls are 16 because that is when kids start getting more sexually active.
If you can get over the idea that it's untested, there's really no reason to wait that long. You are gambling that you know when your children will become sexually active, and that they won't be raped. Maybe the probability of exposure before 16 will be miniscule, but the probability of lasting side effects from the vaccine is even less. You're making a gamble that cannot profit you anything, but may cost you much. It's a position that, ISTM, is very hard to defend logically.
Besides, if any side effects do occur, they will be worse for a sixteen-year-old. There's a chance for dysmenhorrea, work days may be missed, and any missed school will be much harder to make up.
If you bothered to read the posts NO ONE said anything about gleefully hoping people will die....
..You're the one who suggested it!
Try reading the posts....!...if you even care why most of us are against this blatant force of power by the governor.
I can't say I blame them.
Patients that don't follow good medical advice are bad news.
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