Posted on 09/13/2011 10:11:03 AM PDT by Lakeshark
A month ago, I was “fringe” for spotlighting Rick Perry’s Gardasil problem.
As I said then, it’s not just a “single-issue,” one-off problem. It’s about his instincts, judgment, non-apology apology, and ethics.
For everyone still catching up, here’s my column from a month ago.
Now, Gardasil is the search word of the day. And there’s a new development.
After successfully highlighting Perry’s troubling abuse of executive power during last night’s debate, Michele Bachmann risks blowing it with some factually inaccurate assertions.
She’s RIGHT on the principles, wrong on some of the details.
She needs to stay on message and stick with the facts.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
If Obama sponsored a Gardasil mandate law, took Merck money and had a staffer-turned-Merck lobbyist, it would be an issue.
Really, it makes you look more like a fool than crazy, because you clearly don’t understand what the debate is about.
The Gardasil argument isn’t just about Gardasil, nor is it about vaccines in general. It is about the over-reaching of government and the stench of big government cronyism.
Then, there’s the defiant demagoguery that Perry used to defend his position against the people of Texas and the legislature.
The other side of the story:
Gardasil was believed to be a way to stop certain types of cancer among young women. Studies appearing in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2007 found that Gardasil was nearly 100 percent effective in preventing precancerous cervical lesions caused by the the strains that Gardasil protects against. Gardasil’s effectiveness increased when given to girls and young women before they become sexually active. Gardasil was found to be extremely effective in preventing several (but not all) of the strains of HPV known to cause cervical cancer and genital warts.
Cervical cancer is the second leading cancer killer of women worldwide. In the United States, nearly 10,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and 3,700 women die.
In June 2006, The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended administering the vaccine to girls between 11 and 12 years of age, before they become sexually active.
Some critics have claimed that Gardasil has a record of “very serious safety issues.” That obvious attempt to further tarnish Perry’s image by intimating that not only did he do the bidding of Merck in ordering the vaccinations, he did so without considering the possible serious side effects. The CDC has been following Gardasil since its licensing and some current facts follow. Taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website:
“Since licensure, CDC and FDA have been closely monitoring the safety of HPV vaccines. “As of June 22, 2011, approximately 35 million doses of Gardasil® have been distributed in the U.S. and the safety monitoring system (VAERS) received a total of 18,727 reports of adverse events following Gardasil® vaccination. As with all VAERS reports, serious events may or may not have been caused by the vaccine.”
“Of the total number of VAERS reports following Gardasil®, 92% were considered to be non-serious, and 8% were considered serious. Out of 35,000,000 doses distributed, there were 1,498 occasions of serious complications; that equates to a .0000428 chance that a dose will cause a serious adverse reaction.” Hardly enough to consider the vaccine “a very serious safety issue” as claimed by some critics.
As of June, 2011, the CDC says: “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.” Check out the CDC’s statements about Gardasil for yourself. And specifically check out the Summary at the end for the CDC’s conclusion about Gardasil’s effectiveness.
You bet it would.
I was responding to the sentence above marked with carrots.
I repeat, we will not get far if we discard our principles!
Unless all that gobbledygook tells us anything about the Obama style cronyism between Merck and Perry, it’s worthless in this argument.
Amen!
One of many issues I am totally agnostic about. Pales to insignificance alongside the real problems we face as a nation and which the next election ought to be focused on.
> Bachmann is a steaight forward conservative, so she will NOT like either Perry or Romney<
Nor should any straight forward conservative voter!
The problem with your “cronyism” charge is that at the time, there was one vaccine for HPV, and it was made by one company. http://wingright.org/2011/09/13/one-more-time-perry-gardasil-and-the-facts/
AGREE!
Have a FABULOUS day!
:)
Merck contributed a grand total of $6,000 to Perry’s reelection campaign. While it is unseemly in its timing, $6,000 is barely enough money to get noticed, much less to buy the support of a governor, least of all a “high roller” like Perry’s critics claim he is. That Merck contribution amounted to .00025 of the $24 million dollar campaign funds that he received that year.
There are still some who are convinced that Merck contributed more than a paltry $6,000 to Perry. They are simply wrong. Merck gave two checks, one for $1,000 and another for $5,000 to Perry in the 2006 election timeframe (in 2008, they contributed a whopping $2,500). Here is a source to view all of Perry’s contributions: ProPublica. In fact, Merck has only contributed $23,500 to Perry over a 1998-2010 span, not exactly George Soros money. For comparison, from 2000-2006 Merck gave $2,460,000 to state politicians across 40 states.
Amen, Paperdoll! It's just one example of crony capitalism. Political favors for sale.
This is what it is really about.
I have been accused of not liking drug companies. Not so.
My Dad supported us as kids working for a big drug company.
I don’t like drug companies using politicians and the power of government to force their product on citizens.
Darned irritating.
If this is true, why do the vast majority of states not have mandatory HPV vaccination laws/executive orders?
Governor Perry issued an Executive Order (EO) (RP#65, February, 2007) which mandated that all Texas girls be vaccinated prior to their admission to the sixth grade. Parents were allowed to opt out of the mandate by filling out an affidavit.
Perry was rebuked by both houses of the Texas legislature which overturned his EO by a veto-proof margin. Seeing the writing on the wall, Perry did not sign the law nor did he veto the overriding legislation. He subsequently rescinded RP#65 with another EO (RP#74) and the issue is now dead in Texas.
As of July 2011, legislators in at least 41 states and D.C. have introduced legislation to require, fund or educate the public about the HPV Vaccine and at least 20 states have enacted this legislation, including Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Source: National Conference of State Legislatures.
Do you really think that campaign donations are the main avenue of funneling funds to politicians or friends of politicians? They’re not. If you wanted to profit someone for questionable services or favors, would you do it in a way that leaves a paper trail? This isn’t a slam only against Perry but an indictment of the entire culture of corruption that reigns supreme in our government today. We need this to stop, not make excuses for it.
Why should the parents have to go to the trouble to fill out an affidavit?
Why mandate it then?
My best guess? Not as easy to opt out as we may think.
So you think that $6K is the only way Merck could have paid back Rick Perry? You are hopelessly naive. Even if he never received another penny, his action was wrong and something which a true conservative would never have done. (Of course, no conservative would ever have supported Al Gore, or Rudy Giuliani, or....how many “wrong choices” does Slick Rick get to make before people wake up??)
Thank you! Please send this to Michelle Malkin. She is not well informed on this, as is obvious from her recitation of what she thinks are the facts. Opt-out continued to mean Opt-out. Parents have the say. Perry had to add the vaccine under yet another FEDERAL GOVERNMENT mandate. So he cleverly added it and re-enforced the opt out.
If they get it paid for with SCHIP or Medicaid it has to be on their mandated list of immunizations, that’s why.
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