Posted on 08/12/2011 2:46:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Bear with me, this isnt a sound bite subject.
The Human Papilloma Virus is an infection, and should not be a moral issue. In contrast, the vaccine against four strains of the virus, Gardasil, has become a political issue, even though the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now recommends it for all boys and girls.
Governor Rick Perry has been criticized for his February, 2007 Executive Order that made the vaccine mandatory for girls before entering the 6th grade. Very little is said about the part of the EO that affirmed the right of and facilitated parents who wish to opt out of not only Gardasil, but other vaccines as well.
We expect the Governor to direct the people that he appoints, right? The Governor is responsible for management of the Executive Branch, including the Department of State Health Services. He appoints the head of the DSHS, who supervises the people who decide which vaccines will be mandatory. Texas Legislature modified Chapter 38.001 of the Texas Education Code over the years to mandate certain vaccines and allow the DSHS to add other mandated vaccines without Legislative oversight. Just before the Gardasil controversy, the Department had mandated Chicken Pox and Hepatitis A, which are both manufactured using cultures of human fetal tissue obtained at an abortion.
The Governors Executive Order (RP 65) that caused all the controversy also ordered the director of DSHS to make it easier for parents to opt out of vaccines. The Legislature had changed the law from opt in to a requirement to opt out once for all the school years. Next, they changed to a two year limit on the opt out, and then in 2005, the Legislature restricted the period to one year and required a new State form bearing a seal. Parents had to go to Austin or start early in the summer. There were bureaucrats who maintained that the only way to get the form with the seal was to go to Austin, find the right office and make the request in person. Perry used his EO to tell the Director of DSHS to make the request (and the seal) available on-line, making it easier to opt out.
In fact, the reason for the Executive Order was to speed up private insurance coverage and to make it easier for parents to exercise their right to opt out.
The Federal government doesnt have the authority to mandate vaccines in the States. Not yet, not exactly. However, thirty days after the National Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the vaccine, Texas was required by Federal law to buy and distribute the vaccine in the Vaccines for Children program. The program provides vaccines without cost to uninsured children up to age 21, those who are insured by Medicaid, and those whose private insurance does not pay for vaccines at all. In effect, the only families who have to pay for Gardasil for whom the State of Texas will not pay, anyway, under Federal law are those whose private insurance will only pay for mandated vaccines.
Gardasil is manufactured the same way that insulin for diabetics is made these days: using recombinant DNA. In this case, common bakers yeast makes the proteins that cause the immune response. Gardasil had been thoroughly studied even in 2007, and is not only included in the Vaccines for Children program, it is the most-requested vaccine for girls. We are even seeing cross-protection from other strains. It has recently been recommended for boys. The recommended time to give the HPV vaccine is at 11 or 12 years old, when children are scheduled to receive other shots (tetanus and MMR boosters) and before they were likely to be infected.
The only reason that we do Pap smears (the papanicolaou test) is to look for changes in the cell nuclear DNA of the cervix, the opening to the uterus or womb. Over the last 15 years, we have found that 99.7% of these changes are due to HPV infections. In the US, 70% of cervical cancers are caused by HPV 16 and 18. (50% by HPV 16.) These are the two types of HPV that result in the most damage and cost, due to repeat paps and the subsequent biopsies, freezing, LEEP, or other treatments in which the surface of the cervix (the opening to the uterus or womb) is burned off to remove cancerous and pre-cancerous cells. These treatments lead to infertility and premature births.
Because 15% of girls begin sex before age 15 and half of girls who have sex before 20 say their first time was involuntary, the first trial of Gardasil involved 1200 girls between the ages of 9 and 15. The girls 15 and under had a better response to the vaccine than the older girls and women 16 and above. The researchers compared blood levels of antibodies. The research ethics committee ensured that no paps or pelvics were done on the young girls. (Every one of the young women under the age of 21 when I sent them for colposcopy for cancerous changes had been raped before they were 15 years old.)
The reports of deaths and injuries from Gardasil are poorly documented. The great majority of the adverse effects in the reports include pain, redness, and tingling at the injection site and fainting and headaches. People often faint and complain of headaches after seeing a needle, even without being stuck. It looks awful sometimes, like a seizure. The FDA has ruled that none of the deaths that have been confirmed were caused by the vaccine. In addition, this article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal contains a table showing the numbers of serious events and the numbers of deaths in several studies on the use of the HPV vaccine.
Remember your statistics classes. With 33 million doses, there are bound to be deaths that coincide with the timing of the vaccine use. The teen death rate from all causes is 62 per 100,000 across the US. Most of those are boys, but still: In 10 million girls, 30 deaths are not outside the rate for the age group. They are tragic, but consistent with life on this Earth.
More likely the girls who had severe reactions or death had other risk factors, due to the population presenting to clinics giving the vaccine: those who present with worries about STDs, the newly sexually active and those entering college. The records show that many were given new scripts at the same visit for birth control pills and other vaccines and medicines, according to the analyses in the medical literature. (Also, remember the silicon, SSRI, and the general vaccine scares that have been blown out of proportion through the years and later proven to be untrue.)
Nice. Where did you find the word "whacked?"
Pick another topic Diogenesis.
This one has dried up.
you’re calling me a liar?
When that happened we searched online to see if anyone else had similar reactions - go ahead and search yourself.
Eventually Merck had to put this little “possible side affect” in their material.
what is it with you? the medicine? or your crush on Perry that make so insulting?
I’m undecided about Perry right now - I’m most definitely anti-gardisil though.
we are thankful the nurse returned in time.
Also, Diogenesis has as much right to give an opinion as you or I.....
Civil discourse should dictate our responses....
...but given the posts you deem proper don't correspond with what some of the rest of us feel or think, you grow heavy handed with your replies toward us......rude is the word that comes to mind.
indeed!
Read it again. This wasn't pulled out of a hat this is information from the girls.
The first trial of Gardasil involved 1200 girls between the ages of 9 and 15.
I'm going to assert my disagreement with that, again.
In your own words, tell us WHY vaccination with Gardasil was mandated. Who mandated it?
You are swearing as a PerryBOT that Gardasil
was TESTED on 6th graders (at least 1200 girls between
ages 9 and 15) BEFORE RINO Perry mandated
Gardasil to help his Chief of Staff and Merck?
Put up the proof.
[..................crickets]
When RINO Perry mandated Gardasil, it was
tested for promiscuous women (and not even totally effective in several ways).
So how long was that follow up in the Perry study?
3 months? 3 seconds? or imagined?
Where is your, and Perry's, PROOF that it was "tested"
... in children.
“And it looks like those who have another candidate are willing to say anything to divert attention away from Rick Perry.”
That’s interesting. Did you intend to reply to another posters comments? My comments were strictly with regard to Gardasil Rick and his statist political philosophy.
As I’ve stated before, I kind of hope the gop selects Gardasil Rick as their nominee. If Sarah Palin gets into the race, I’ll actually have to contribute and campaign on her behalf. There would be no such obligation with Gardasil Rick. I could go back to my gardening, secure in the knowledge that it won’t matter one whit whether he wins the election or not. The future 10 years from now will look pretty much the same regardless.
Gardasil Rick does have nicer hair than urkel, though.
Actually, the statement was “between the ages of 9 and 15.” You should have copied and pasted that.)
Most of the data was presented to the FDA drug committees. Publish date in journals may be later.
The vaccine was approved by the FDA for girls in early June, 2006. http://www.fda.gov/cber/products/hpvmer060806.htm \
The Committee meeting that discussed the use in adolescents under 15 is here:
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/transcripts/2006-4222t1.pdf
Here’s one study from 2006, noting 500 girls and 500 boys between the ages of 9 -15. Mean age, 12.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/118/5/2135.full.pdf
lol. Hey, someone had to get a job to pay Perry's mansion rent and furnishings...oh wait, that was taken care of by the taxpayers...nevermind.
Half of girls under 15 say that the sex was involuntary. Don’t re-word the data presented.
The Governor cited the fact that the vaccine was recommended by the FDA as his reasoning for the mandate. It was already free of charge to any girl that qualified for Vaccine for Children - Medicaid, CHIPS, non-insured. The mandate would have made insurers cover it.
I know you don’t have anything to do because your candidate isn’t doing enough to keep you happy. But your obsession with this vaccine is quite frankly, unhealthy.
You didn’t read the part how opt-out was already the law in TX (by legislative mandate) and that the EO made it easier to opt-out of any and all vaccines?
You didn’t read it?
You didn’t understand it?
You didn’t get it?
Need help?
You guys are getting ever-so-closer to being as bad as the Slick Willardbots with your talking points.
Use of state power to coerce someone to purchase a comapnies product is wrong headed. I may hate democratic statists progressives, but I truly loathe republican statist progressives. They are all cut from the same cloth.
"Hey, what is unhealthy is RINO Perry's
and your insistence on PerryCARE/RomneyCARE/ObamaCARE.
Maybe that is why Perry is so afraid of women."
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