Posted on 09/14/2011 12:59:16 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
n Monday night’s debate, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum all seemed to be auditioning for the role that Jude Law plays in the film “Contagion” -- Alan Krumwiede, a blogger who tells millions that a vaccine to combat a lethal pathogen is actually dangerous, and claims both the epidemic and vaccine were created by government to enrich drug companies.
Krumwiede’s conspiracy theory proves deadly -- and so will these Republicans’, if anyone listens.
....Don’t be distracted by legitimate, but minor, questions about how states should make public-health decisions: The thrust of this attack is garbage -- and deadly garbage at that. The anti-vaccine psuedo-science behind the charge has been thoroughly discredited.
By alleging that vaccines cause retardation and brain damage, Bachmann is providing aid and comfort to such groups as Generation Rescue, which still defend the now-discredited claims that vaccines cause autism. (The Lancet decertified Andrew Wakefield’s “study” last year. This year, the British Medical Journal showed his research was bogus to boot.)
All three candidates slammed Texas Gov. Rick Perry for requiring immunization of 12-year-old girls against the human papilloma virus, a leading cause of cervical cancer. The attack truly became a blogworthy screed as we heard about how Perry and Merck (the developer of Gardasil, one of the two HPV vaccines) profited from the mandate at the expense of children’s health.
....Unless other Republicans confront Bachmann or she changes her tune, fewer parents will vaccinate their kids. More children will die. Tragically, life will imitate art.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’ve chosen to go all in with Perry because he is the only viable candidate. He’s not perfect but he’s more conservative than not. He’s pro military, pro life, pro Second Amendment and pro capitalism. Those four things are most important to me. What’s the alternative? Romney? Another four of obama? Bachman or the other candidates in the race who realistically don’t stand a chance of winning? Palin, who is not even in the race? I wish the anti-Perry people would at least put forth some new suggestions or some polling numbers that show Palin could actually beat obama.
IMHO, the vaccine takes a back seat to Bachmann’s DNC like attack on Perry.
‘government needles being pushed into innocent girls’
If Bachmann and Romney want to demagogue like Democrats, than they should be on that ticket.
And that goes for Santorum as well.
I fyou can’t discern the difference between disease spread by casual contact and those spread by sexual activity, you have no room to impugn anyone’s grasp of reality.
Thank you for the LINKS.
I looked at them both. And I have seen them before.
Bachmann sounded like a trail lawyer doing her closing for the jury on a multi million dollar class action lawsuit (like John Edwards) to fill her own pockets.
When all else fails, this is your fallback position.
It's pathetic.
Personally, as a conservative I thought it was an embarrassment.
I totally agree. Seeing the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Gardasil issue by conservatives is maddening. Rank and file voters are not going to give a DANG about that and i mean rank and file CONSERVATIVE voters. This is just so much "inside baseball" on the part of rabid political junkies, it isn't even funny. Freepers need to realize that FREEPERS do not make up the majority of the conservative voting public.
How do you KNOW your partner has not had contact with HPV infected person?
Bad, Merck! Bad.
Bachmann had actually made her point to Perry, but then kept going, and ended up looking petty and ridiculous by suggesting he was “bought” by Merck, and, the insane suggestion that Gardasil can cause mental retardation.
Theoretically, if everyone were vaccinated, HPV could be all but eradicated in a generation, right??
Just posing an idea, I neither support nor oppose Gardasil, I don’t know enough about it and have very mixed feelings.
As far as Perry, he ultimately said it was a mistake - I give any politician kudos for admitting it. Romney could learn a thing or two from him (such as admitting Romneycare was a mistake, which he refuses to do).
WHAT IS REALLY SAD ABOUT THIS WHOLE NON ISSUE IS THAT EVERYONE IS MISSING THE BIG PICTURE.
We live in a Society where our children as young as 11 need a shot against STD’s.
That in its self is an indictment of the parents of America AND a society that teaches children IN SCHOOL the ins and outs of Sex.
Abstinance is a joke for late night TV.
Children can be taught morals at home yet when they attend school those morals are ridiculed.
Does anyone think Merck would spend money on a drug if there were NOT a market for it’s use?
Well, yeah. His remarks came as the mandate was being reversed, and he was objecting to the reversal, challenging the legislature to implement something that would result in "vaccinating close to 95 percent of our young women."
I'll wager that it's impossible to get 95% coverage without a mandate. Even making it free, without more, would not result in that rate of coverage.
Just a rhetorical question, if he's not advocating something in the nature of a mandate, then why did he implement a mandate; and why did he object to the legislature overriding the mandate?
I fyou can’t discern the difference between disease spread by casual contact and those spread by sexual activity, you have no room to impugn anyone’s grasp of reality.
I live in a world of reality, and quite frankly most of what takes place is fully incompatible with Utopia. If this earth wasn't a dumpster then who wouldn't want to live in Paradise?
Sadly, the facts are that so many Texans are promiscuous, encouraged by everything from every form of media to the education cartels, that "sexual activity" for a very large demographic is for practical purposes the equivalent of "casual contact". It might just be that your appearance and personality have kept you from any sexual activity involving another human or a prostitute, but don't let that anomaly cloud your perception.
There is a reason why HIV is rampant, that millions of children are aborted, and millions are in single parent households. You can foolishly wave it off with the hackneyed excuse that they "brought it upon themselves" but the reality is people do stupid things and want you and me to pay for the consequences. They don't want the consequences, I don't want the consequences, and no one wants to pay for it - yet they will still drop their pants and give it up for the price of a drink and a compliment.
I don't know anyone who wants cervical cancer, and I don't know anyone who would deny themselves random sex with a stranger over the risk of getting it. There might be other reasons, but those standards aren't all that very high. But believe it when the harvest come in for the wild seeds that were sown, the Producers in Texas will have to foot the bill and the tramp will have to go under the knife. This is all hypothetically preventable in that we can foolishly expect an irresponsible, emotional, entitled, hormonal person to keep her knees together during the heat of the moment, or we can make it practically preventable by injecting a relatively harmless and inexpensive vaccine in her.
Its sort of like airbags in the car. It costs a lot, and you have zero expectation to use them since you have so much confidence in your ability to not wreck - but you sure as hell are going to be happy when they deploy. You, me, the insurance carrier, the first responders and the medical staff are all going to be happy.
Of course, in your pure ideological world, those things would be considered the line crossed from liberty to utter and complete tyranny.
Domalais: “The ‘pene’ in penectomy refers to penis. Last I checked, women don’t have those.”
I know. Maybe my reading comprehension is a bit off. CW posted that Perry’s Gardasil order was justified because it could save lives. In other threads, she’s explained Perry wanted it mandated so that it could be paid by insurance. Otherwise, parents would have to pay for it and the poor would be unable to afford it.
I argued that there’s no end to government mandates if one only requires that some small number of lives will be saved at some point. Using that line of reasoning, one could mandate diet and exercise, because we know a lack thereof can definitely create life threatening medical problems later in life.
aruanan responded that there’s no risk of getting one’s penis removed from poor diet and exercise (but) there’s cancer from genital warts. I took that to mean aruanan thought Gardisal was justified because of (cervical) cancer risks from HPV which was the discussion earlier in the thread. It now dawns on me aruanan was only pointing out that males are also affected by HPV.
My apologies for any misunderstandings. I agree HPV affects both men and women. If anything, that’s points out even further Perry’s error. If he’s THAT concerned about HPV that he mandates it, then why not for men?
Maybe they're having sex with someone who's had multiple partners without knowing it.
Oh, shut up.
At the time he imposed the EO, Gardisil was not approved for males.
I think he's in favor of mandating the vaccine for all, but sees a political pitfall in admitting that, let alone advocating it.
Because 5 years ago the medical field didn't know as much as they know now. Time marches on and so does learning -- at least that's the idea.
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