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.
-- Correct. --
By that standard, there are no mandatory vaccines in Texas, because ALL vaccines have an opt out provision; and the conscientious objection affidavit form for opting out is available online.
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“The parents were not informed about the method to opt out. The procedure existed but they were pushed by the Perry admin to get the shot.”
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You are incorrect.
http://vaccineinfo.net/exemptions/index.shtml
Not everyone who is vaccinated responds to the vaccine, however, when large enough numbers of people in the community are vaccinated it acts as a fire break, keeping the disease confined, and preventing these killing and crippling diseases from being passed around.
But....What I suspect, is that as a nation we have forgotten how devastating a plague of polio, measles, or whopping cough can be. Maybe ( sadly) we will need to go though a major catastrophic event for everyone to relearn these lessons.
A dumb tactic by Bachmann, IMO.
Being from MN I know Michelle she jump ahead of a parade that has already toke off and thinks she is the majorette.
She did it with the Tea Party.
The Tea Party did not need a majorette they might have already had one in the gracious lady from Alaska.
Michelle is no a popular representative not because she is a leader but because she is an attention seeker.
A person on the ground in Iowa said “The difference between Michelle and Sarah is that Michelle reaches out to the crowd, whereas the crowd reaches out to the lady from Alaska.
I like Michelle but she should go back to the house and get ready to be challenged next election.
That's fine. The rest of us will take the responsibility for you to decide who governs you.
Hope you like our choices.
WHY DO YOU KEEP SPAMMING THIS POST ON MULTIPLE THREADS? We know you are in the tank for Perry, and that is fine. But please stop spamming.
You are taking a single issue from a 10 year record of running the state. He's bound to have made a mistake or two during the decade. There are more conservative decisions and leanings in his record than not. Sorry if he's not as perfect as Palin. I like her too but she's not going to win the general. She's tweeting from the outside looking in. The first things the other governors will hit her with is her propensity to quit when the going gets tough. What does she do if someone sues her or a family member and threatens her financial stability while she's President (the reason she gave for quitting)?
Which attitude is why in 2008, 40% of Americans who would have been eligible to vote for some presidential candidate, didn't. God damn (and I mean it) these self fulfilling defeatist prophecies. ACORN never worries about that which is why they win so often.
This stuff ALWAYS happens within the GOP group all vying
with one another to win public approval-—I’ve even seen it
split up and leave bitter feelings with a BAD Tea Party candidate and a more moderate (but not really) Republican in a bid for Congressional seat in NY17 last year.
People like Bachmann (and from what I have only heard, Palin) wind up doing the Left’s work for them-—if Perry winds up getting the nod, the Dems then wind up with a juicy thing like Gardasil in their arsenal to use against Perry.
(Not that they weren’t ready with it anyway in that scenario)
It’s just that the Tea party has brought it up first and even THEY think it’ a game-changer-—imagine how the Dems will use it. Ultimately, though, I suppose there is some
righteous logic to this also, along the lines of “See? We take care of the corrupt who happen to be on our side, rather than avoiding or celebrating their corruption”, though that’s usually happened lately with the now-forgotten homosexual scandals of a few whose names I don’t even remember now.
Plus it puts the parents on a government list that could be abused by Child Protective Services.
You are uninformed.
So, your stand is that all vaccinations are bad because a state government mandates it? If that is the position of the conservative movement, it is going to be a very small movement.
States have mandated vaccinations for several generations....and rightfully so. The facts here are simple, Perry made a mistake on this issue, it was corrected, he acknowledges it. It is a negative mark, but no a disqualifier. There was no dark, sinister effort here to force parents to allow something they do not want for their kids. The opt out was the simplest of the various vaccination requirements. Perry received a paltry donation from the drug provider, hardly enough to influence policy.
If this is the worst of the charges, Perry is a shoe in. I am more interested in hearing his plans on jobs, taxes, social security and immigration to see if he is the guy I want to vote for next spring. .
I don't like any of the candidates.
The fluke that allowed her attackers to proceed with impunity in Alaska, does not exist in Federal law. There’s your answer.
Bachmann just jumped the shark!
What evidence do you have to support that allegation other than "after the 6k donation therefore because of the 6k donation." Do you really believe that if Perry had not gotten the 6k from Merck that he would have not gone with the mandate, and that there was no other reason to do the mandate other than "crony capitalism"?
[But on the flip side, that means more business for Merck than if it was an option at direct parental expense, where parents can see it. (It is at parental expense in the big picture, because the insurance company recoups the cost through the premiums it charges. Insurance policies never create money — never.)]
On the flip side, Merck created a vaccine that prevents women form dying of cervical cancer. Why shouldn’t Merck profit from that? It is cheaper for the insurance company to pay for the administering of the disease than the treatment of the disease. So from a state Gov’t’s perspective, when it is mandated by the federal Gov’t to provide Medicaid, I can see where it is in the state’s interest to mandate the vaccine. Imagine all the mandates that will be in the state’s interest under Obamacare. This issue actually highlights that very well.
Bachmann struck out with that comment.
She is not ready for the White House.
Serious judgment issues (Ed Rollins) plus foot in mouth disease.
And bad taste in choosing hair and makeup stylists.
Like Hillary Clinton.
A woman who does not have the judgement to groom and dress and present herself as an equal of other world leaders, is not a world leader.
Now, if only Palin would hire a speech coach and learn to project like a power person, without the shrillness. And also get some advice on power hair for 45 yr old women.
That’s okay, on election day we will select one for you.
As for homeschooling....Homeschoolers are not kept in a cage. Our kids were in ballet, when to the “Y” for swimming, took ice skating lesson, were on the ice-hockey team, and active in scouting. They went to church every Sunday and sang in the choir. So...plenty of crowds there with lots of kids and adults.
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