A deadly hysteria - Bachmann’s vaccine lunacy

New York Post ^ | September 14, 2011 | ROBERT GOLDBERG, vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest

[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.

[Oceander]

Baloney.

[aruanan]

You’re trying to justify mandated free Gardasil because it involves women’s health? So if it has anything to do with a woman’s parts, then it’s up to everyone else to pay for it?

First of all, your ability to read critically and to reason from that is as defective as your understanding of science and medicine. Where did I try "to justify mandated free Gardasil"? I didn't, you made an unwarranted assumption. Second, if you think that vaccination against genital warts has only to do with "a woman's parts," then you've simply underscored, in a way that should humiliate you, your ignorance of what's involved in the transmission of the virus and the sequelae for both males and females of genital warts.

[bmwcyle]

Sorry I don’t want any government person forcing me to get shots. In the Navy, I got the Yellow Fever shot. That night I got a temperature of 105.7. The year 1978 was my last flu shot. In 1977 and 1978 I got the flu at the shots. Government needs to mind their own business. Perry was wrong. Bachmann was right.

[Apogee]

I suppose I should not have gone there, as I almost did not.
I am not dismissing your opinion, but arguing with it, while thinking that the quest for a cure for cancer tends to color our sight one way or another. Clarifying that I did not think you were a Merck employee was not intended to make the accusation through the back door that you were, it just seemed necessary once I raised my first point.

I am less concerned with motivation than a full exploration of the evidence. Motivation in nearly all instances will be imperfect or suspect (at least mine are, if I delve into them sufficiently), but may lead to inquiry which leads to truth in any case.

---

I like a lot of what I hear Perry saying now. I do wonder how much of it is expedient, and how much we are being fed the idea that he is the best answer. When the press on the right points out all his good points and the attacks from the left make me think of Br’er Rabbit, I start to wonder about his actual history, and how he would actually govern given the chance. It is beginning to look as though he is the option we are being given, so I don’t mind vetting him now as hard as possible.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

This vaccine has been tested — is effective — compared to other life-saving vaccines and over the counter drugs, has hardly any side effects. Penicillin alone has about 400 deaths due to allergic reactions in the US alone.

Look at the LINKS I posted at the beginning of this thread.

[DB]

I encourage you and others to read this:

http://www.juntosociety.com/patriotism/inytg.html

Its as true now as it was then. Its the nature of man and why we are where we are now in terms of government.

I don’t know anything about the particular Web site linked other than the quote is from Davy Crockett and what I was looking for.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

......It’s getting a bit tiresome, in truth.

It's time to get this out where more people can talk about it.

For several months, every thread about Rick Perry has had posters come by to drop links and post ugly pictures about Gov. Perry and Gardasil.

Finally it's "out there" and the facts are coming out so, YES! it may be "tiresome" to some, but it is educational for many others.

Instead of snide whispers and spin, now we get the truth.

I don't find that one bit "tiresome."

[9YearLurker]

I can’t for anything figure why you’re posting to FR at all if you think an expensive vaccine for a non-readily-communicable disease should be either

a) mandated by government (and Perry’s original plan included an expensive, complicated, slow and impractical opt-out that required parents to claim they were philosophically against all vaccinations) or

b) paid for by taxpayers for other than low-income citizens for whom we already cover healthcare.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I posted to FR under my husband’s name (adding “Cincinatus’ Wife” at the bottom of each post) before I signed in as “Cincinatus’ Wife” in my own right.

For our wedding anniversary in 1998, for my gift I asked to go from Texas to Washington D.C. and attend the first Free Republic march during the Clinton-Lewinsky, Clinton-everything outrage.

I refuse to be dismissed because I like what Gov. Rick Perry stands for. I want this country repaired. And if my persistence has caused you to look further, I thank my Irish roots (which are red) for making me fight back against the campaign to destroy his chances of being nominated.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I'm still unclear on Perry's position with regard to mandating Gardasil. Is his position that Gardasil SHOULD be a mandatory vaccination? (with "mandatory" having similar opt-out delay provisions that pertain to other vaccines in the "mandatory" schedule)

Please learn some of the background in the LINKS at Post #18. It's a good place to start.

[Dusty Road]

ping

[Cboldt]

I've read all that. Perry's position whether or not the vaccine should be mandatory, as a matter of government policy, is still not clear to me. He's muddied the water.

As a comparison, from your posts, I take away that your position is that the vaccine should be mandatory, added to the schedule of childhood vaccines (with the caveat that "mandatory" has opt out similar to the opt provision that pertain to all vaccines in the "mandatory" schedule).

I think his position is the same as yours, as he gave a passionate defense of government intervention in this matter when his will was overruled by the Texas legislature. But his recent walkback is ambiguous, and I think may lead some people to the conclusion that he believes this vaccine should not be mandated by the government.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

9YL: “.....a) mandated by government (and Perry’s original plan included an expensive, complicated, slow and impractical opt-out that required parents to claim they were philosophically against all vaccinations).....”

*************************************************

CW: Your entire premise is based on lie.

…….”The Gardasil vaccine was recommended the FDA’s vaccine approval committee, more than 6 months before Governor Perry’s Executive Order. All girls who qualified for the Federal Vaccines for Children program were eligible to receive the vaccine free of charge: Medicaid, CHIPs, and uninsured or those with insurance that won’t pay for vaccines. The Texas Legislature had previously delegated unconditional authority to mandate new vaccines to the Department of State Health Services, which is under Governor Perry and the Executive Branch.”

http://wingright.org/2011/09/13/one-more-time-perry-gardasil-and-the-facts/

The Governor’s 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.”

http://wingright.org/2011/08/07/dose-of-reason-perry-and-gardasil/

[Cincinatus' Wife]

As a comparison, from your posts, I take away that your position is that the vaccine should be mandatory,

Where on FR or anywhere else in the world have I said that?

I haven't because I wouldn't.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

.....I think his position is the same as yours, as he gave a passionate defense of government intervention in this matter when his will was overruled by the Texas legislature. But his recent walkback is ambiguous, and I think may lead some people to the conclusion that he believes this vaccine should not be mandated by the government.

Please give me a link to this.

[ryderann]

Soon it will be mandated that we buy a Chevy Volt. The object of this vaccination hullabulloo is to get Bachmann out of the picture.

[M-cubed]

But some interventions are good. Among those I would include vaccination against childhood diseases and compulsory use of seat belts and motorcycle helmets. <<

Welcome to the slope my FRiend!....Be advised: You'll pick up speed as u approach the bottom....Fasten your seat belt and put on your helmet...When u bust thru the finish line (the Constitution) the abyss awaits you....

as mandates go...Id vote for air breaks 1st!

[exDemMom]

Why aren’t men mandated to get the vaccine if they are the vectors?

Actually, I worked with a gynecologist who was working very hard to get the vaccine administered to boys as well as girls. She was also interested in developing a PAP like smear for men.

Those viruses don't just cause cervical cancer--they can cause cancer in any tissue that has mucosal membranes that are susceptible to infection. I think penile cancer may be worse than cervical cancer, in some ways. Removal of part of the cervix doesn't require extensive reconstructive surgery...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Soon it will be mandated that we buy a Chevy Volt. The object of this vaccination hullabulloo is to get Bachmann out of the picture.

Bachmann chose this lie - beat the drum as loud as she could - ran to every microphone she could grab to repeat her lies. She's chosen her Waterloo.

Chevy Volts? Really?

Mandate? Really?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Repeating “mandate” will not make it factual.