Posted on 09/13/2011 8:09:37 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Earlier today, I noted that Michele Bachmann finally scored points on Rick Perry by hitting him on his ties to Merck and linking that to the Gardasil mandate Perry imposed through executive order in Texas. This is a fair point on Perry’s record, even given his apology for pursuing the mandate through EO instead of through the legislature, and it’s not surprising that Bachmann was the candidate to first take advantage of the opening. (Mitt Romney passed a mandate on health insurance for all citizens of Massachusetts, which pretty much puts this issue out of reach for him.) However, Bachmann took a winning argument about the method and the wisdom of mandating a vaccination for a limited-spread virus and turned it into an anti-vaccination argument, especially in this post-debate argument on Fox with Greta van Susteren.
>>>"There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result of that vaccine."<<<
Huh? “Mental retardation” typically takes place in a pre- or neo-natal event. Autism becomes apparent in the first couple of years of life — and primarily affects boys. Gardasil vaccinations take place among girls between 9-12 years of age. Even assuming that this anecdote is arguably true, it wouldn’t be either “mental retardation” or autism, but brain damage.
The FDA has received no reports of brain damage as a result of HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix. Among the reports that correlate seriously adverse reactions to either, the FDA lists blood clots, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and 68 deaths during the entire run of the drugs. The FDA found no causal connection to any of these serious adverse events and found plenty of contributing factors to all — and all of the events are exceedingly rare.
The “mental retardation” argument is a rehash of the thoroughly discredited notion that vaccines containing thimerasol caused a rapid increase in diagnosed autism cases. That started with a badly-botched report in Lancet that allowed one researcher to manipulate a ridiculously small sample of twelve cases in order to reach far-sweeping conclusions about thimerasol. That preservative hasn’t been included in vaccines for years, at least not in the US, and the rate of autism diagnoses remain unchanged.
The most charitable analysis that can be offered in this case for Bachmann is that she got duped into repeating a vaccine-scare urban legend on national television. It looks more like Bachmann sensed that she had won a point and wanted to go in for the kill, didn’t bother to check the facts, and didn’t care that she was stoking an anti-vaccination paranoid conspiracy theory, either. Neither shines a particularly favorable light on Bachmann.
Rick Santorum took the correct position on the Gardasil issue. We mandate certain vaccines in children because we mandate children be gathered for educational purposes for many years (in private or public schools), and certain diseases are easily communicable in those settings. By mandating vaccinations against whooping cough, measles, and mumps, we are protecting children who would otherwise get exposed without any action on their part except compliance with the law. That’s not true with HPV, and parents should decide for themselves whether to inoculate their sons and daughters with Gardasil or Cervarix. If Perry wanted to make those inoculations more accessible, he could have crafted an opt-in system rather than forcing parents to opt out.
“I am a libertarian. As a libertarian I believe in freedom so long as my actions don’t hurt another. If I am not vaccinated and my children are not vaccinated then, if they get one of these diseases they are very likely to infect others. That isn’t a libertarian thing to do to another.”
You’ve restored my faith that not all libertarians are off their nut.
Well stated.
I could be mixing those two religions up then. I don’t know the difference between Scientology and Christian Science Church. For now I’ll just assume you are correct that disregard for all vaccines is a part of the Christian Science Church and not Scientology. I will have to read about their differences though, mostly out of curiosity. Thanks for clarifying.
True, the one the Mayo Clinic left off was eating out! One of the biggest outbreaks of Hep B was from a restaurant worker infecting food and passing it along. Ala typhoid Mary. BTW I am sure some of those things go on at school(s), approved or not.
Generally, "Yes," but the suit must be brought and decided under the terms of the National Childhood Vaccine Act.
See Supreme Court Rules the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 Bars State-Law Design-Defect Claims Against Vaccine Manufacturers, which refers to the case of Bruesewitz v. Wyeth LLC, FKA Wyeth, Inc., decided in February 2011.
VAERS data cannot be used to prove a causal association between the vaccine and the adverse event. The only association between the adverse event and vaccination is temporal, meaning that the adverse event occurred sometime after vaccination. Therefore, the adverse event may be coincidental or it may have been caused by vaccination, however we cannot make any conclusions that the events reported to VAERS were caused by the vaccine.It has NOT "done a lot of damage."
As of June 22, 2011, approximately 35 million doses of Gardasil® were distributed in the U.S. and VAERS received a total of 18,727 reports of adverse events following Gardasil® vaccination: 17,958 reports among females and 346 reports for males, of which 285 reports were received after the vaccine was licensed for males in October 2009. VAERS received 423 reports of unknown gender. Of the total number of VAERS reports following Gardasil®, 92% were considered to be non-serious, and 8% were considered serious.
Summary
Based on all of the information we have today, CDC recommends HPV vaccination for the prevention of most types of cervical cancer. As with all approved vaccines, CDC and FDA will continue to closely monitor the safety of HPV vaccines. Any problems detected with these vaccines will be reported to health officials, healthcare providers, and the public and needed action will be taken to ensure the public's health and safety.
Thank you.
There may be an “Opt-out”
But America was founded on “Opt-in”
You could ignore her threads completely.
I suspect that if your favored candidate (whoever it is) was leading, you'd be busy helping to spin away that candidate's flaws. Unless your candidate has no flaws.
Do boys get cervical cancer? I hear that Gardisil also works against Hepatitis B because it is not necessarily a sexually transmitted disease.
That sounds good to me. At this point I’m not really for or against Perry but I am darned sure against BS.
Another thing that non-Texans don’t get about Gardasil is the impact on our Hispanic population.
1) Hispanics are a majority in Texas.
2) Hispanics in TX have an extremely high rate of teen pregnancy. (Shh, that means they’re having sex.)
3) Hispanics in TX have a high rate of poverty.
4) Gardasil is $360 (@ $120 ea.)
5) High teen pregnancy & poverty rates equals increased risk of contracting HPV.
6) Gardasil has the potential to save TX taxpayers millions in healthcare costs for our Hispanic population by preventing cancer treatments later.
There are lots of arguments against a Gardasil mandate. The above is an argument for a Gardasil mandate (properly done via legislature.)
Is that right? So, if you’re born here you have the “option” of becoming a U.S. citizen and abiding by our laws? LOL
Or not.
The dynamic that drives this is that when it's your kid, a scientist's answer that "we really don't know what causes (for example) autism" is just emotionally unacceptable.
So parents grasp at straws and try anything, no matter how whacked.
One can sympathize with them while still rejecting their views as public health policy.
Other vaccines are required for diseases that can be passed casually, i.e. breathing the same air, touching a doorknob after an infected person has touched it. HPV is passed through a behavior choice that is deliberate and carries other risks besides HPV.
Oh I know, your little princess will be 21 and married before she’s thrashed by Antwon, not like the likely average age of 13.
I simply don't want government dictating to me how I should be raising my child. I would certainly fight against the Obamas dictating what I should be feeding my child, but apparently, you are okay with that since the rate of childhood obesity is so high.
Good grief.
She went down quite a bit in my estimation. Reminded me of John Edwards, for pity's sake!
Here's hoping she drops out...
But who is to say there wouldn't be lists kept in the future?
You nailed it. That’s exactly how she comes across.
Thank you. I been racking my brain for the, “What is it?” but didn’t put it all together until your comment.
Well that could be done if enabling legislation were passed first. The EO bypassed the legislature.
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.