I’m sorry, I was talking about vaccines “in-general” because none of the candidates was making a distinction between the normal vaccines and this one. They just said it was immoral not to let parents have the choice, and to opt-in.
But opt-in doesn’t make sense anyway — you can ALWAYS opt-in, just get the vaccine. It’s not like parents need government PERMISSION to get a vaccine, just a doctor’s prescription.
In reading several of the umpteen gardasil threads here, I learned that if any vaccine is mandated, it is covered by medicaid (under whatever TX state name). If it’s not mandated, the patients/parents have to pay for it. As I understand it, getting the vaccine at your doc’s is upwards of $300. The problem, of course, is that the poor, i.e., medicaid-insured, are those most likely to be susceptible to contracting the disease.
There is the argument to be made (as it has) that a vaccine encourages the behavior. I wouldn’t say it encourages the behavior, which would be conducted in any case. Perhaps having a vaccine paid by the state condones the behavior. But not having the vaccine would not stop it, and there would be a high incidence of what I understand is a truly hideous disease.