“Yes, of course I support vaccinating school kids...”
including the mandates to make sure it happens?
“... against easily communicable diseases.”
Does that include HepB? on the Texas vaccination schedules, not easily communicable, but blood-borne.
As for HPV:
“there better first be bodies piling up in the street..”
Wikipedia says:
- 11,000 cases and 3,900 deaths in the U.S. in 2008. Cervical cancer has substantial mortality in resource-poor areas; worldwide, there are an estimated 490,000 cases and 270,000 deaths.
how easy to catch? ... “easily catch one of those crippling or fatal”
HPV is pretty darn communicable, not only via intercourse but other forms of intimate contacts, so much so that about a quarter of adults have the virus. The American Social Health Association reported estimates that about 75-80% of sexually active Americans will be infected with HPV at some point in their lifetime.
“Moreover, IIRC, those sorts of mandates at least went through the legislative process.”
Certainly, it was wrong of Perry to do this via EO and he admits that. But I explained previously the lege has given the Dept of Health authority to determine immunization rules and schedules, so not all mandates for immunizations came from the lege directly.
I agree that HPV is both common and that several strains will kill you. Texas legislature or any other state's can make the vaccine mandatory and I don't care as long as it isn't my state doing it to my kids. Just so you know, Gardasil is not risk free and has a body count.
The issue is not Gardasil per se, but Perry's judgment and use of power. Gardasil wouldn't be an issue for me if Perry had not entered the race for the most powerful political office in the world.
And, then it wouldn't be an issue if it had gone through the legislative process and then Perry signed it into law.
I want the POTUS to be someone who I can trust to always be and to always err on the side of the Constitution, personal liberty and freedom.
That might seem trivial, but it's one of my Presidential litmus tests and with his HPV mandate, Perry failed it.