Posted on 09/13/2011 11:03:51 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Gov. Rick Perry's 2007 attempt to require that girls in Texas be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV, has become a political hot potato. But Dr. Ronald DePinho, the new president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, says the vaccine is not just sound but "one of the great scientific advances in the history of medicine."
In last night's GOP presidential debate, Perry faced repeated criticism from other candidates for his HPV push. Michele Bachmann said it was “flat out wrong” to require that “innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order.”
Part of Bachmann's critique was that Perry's executive order, which he now says he would handle differently, was the byproduct of cronyism. Perry's former chief of staff, Mike Toomey was a lobbyist for the drug company Merck, maker of the vaccine, at the time. In interviews following the debate, Bachmann reportedly went even further, suggesting that the vaccine was a ""a very dangerous drug" and could cause "mental retardation."
But today, in an interview with the Tribune, DePinho said that as a physician, as the president of a leading cancer research institution and as a father of two young girls, "there's only one path here, which is to support vaccination."
"To do anything else would be unethical," DePinho said.
His recommendation for anyone who opposes the vaccine: "Visit one patient with cervical cancer in an advanced state."
Unless the children are having sex in the aisles of the classroom, which wouldn’t surprise me in some areas of the country, the state has no business requiring this for school attendance.
A fact that Diogenesis can lie or mislead about...but I'm sure (s)he will try.
So WHAT? I used to work there. I agree, it’s the best, or close to it. Don’t believe authority just because they say something. You gotta dig for the details. Dude made an incredibly simplistic, disingenuous, and condescending remark. Approve universal innoculation because the late stages of the disease are terrible? How about comparing harm from taking vs not taking the drug? Oh, you can’t do that because you have no longitudinal studies. Reasonable people can disagree, and I disagree with universal vaccination. Moreover, I think if you’re going to give it to girls, you ought to give it to boys too. Makes no sense not to. The boys are carriers too, and can pass it along. Boys just can’t get cervical cancer because they don’t have cervixes. But if they can pass it it their partners, they should be vaccinated too.
If we’re talking about a highly contagious communicable disease, they shouldn’t be able to opt out. IMO
This is not a highly contagious communicable disease, in that it is not going to be transmitted through the air or by coming in contact with normal everyday household, workplace, school, and other surfaces in public.
As I’ve said, there are so few New Yorkers on Free Republic that we don’t often hear the better/smarter attitude from them. But there seems to be hundreds of Texans on Free Republic and because of their numbers, they feel very free to get as awful as they want. They watch each others’ back and tear down anyone with whom they disagree. And, for me, it has nothing to do with Rick Perry. He’s quite the gentleman compared to some freepers here.
By the way, we have an important election going on in NYC right now. The Republicans may win Anthony Weiner’s old seat (eewwww!)
I'm just pointing out that Sarah is apparently not opposed to ALL state vaccination mandates involving a sexually transmitted disease - just this one. There might be a bit of political gamesmanship in her recent comments. Anyway, if she gets into the race, I'd like to see one of the other candidates challenge her on her support for other mandates like this.
I don’t recall ever seeing your name pop up in a Perry threads (and I visit plenty) but, I’ll take your word for it and be glad you’re voting for the eventual nominee whoever they might be.
I hope the rest of the anti-Perrys will do the same.
The opt-out was a bad idea, regardless of whether it was to benefit Merck, or merely because Perry believes the end justifies the means.
In response to your comments, I’m going to have to go with addressing the decision making abilities of any adult who would force this vaccine on a ten year old child.
This is not a highly communicable disease, and it should never have been forced on ten year olds. As a young woman matures, she can make her own decision regarding this vaccine.
As long as the kid is not sexually active, there’s no reason to force this on them. When a child is old enough, and there is access for them to have sexual activity, then I do think it’s best they be presented with the options and make their own choice concerning this vaccine.
Whether that’s at 14 or 17, I still think it’s the kids body that is being exposed to the vaccine or the cancer producing malady. They should make they choice whether they’ll chance dying now or at 45 to 50, if even then.
Well, I work for a school district, and while it is not happening in the school aisles, it is happening a lot everywhere else... The funny thing is that I agree with those who dislike the mandate - so do I. I also disagree with the mandate for the Hep-B vaccinations. So I am not going to argue that the mandate was a good idea - even Perry agrees that it wasn't. But I do think the vaccine is a good thing, and finding a way to make it widely available and affordable was a good idea. So I guess my only argument with people on this thread is with those who seem to want to claim that Gardasil is somehow inherently evil because it prevents a sexually transmitted disease.
I think Perry will probably suffer some short-term damage from this, but I don't think it will be a major issue in the election. I do think that Bachmann managed to finally eliminate herself, though.
Believe me, they know it Dio. That’s why for this new president to be so condescending... but that’s kind of the RINO way, isn’t it. This is the group of people that imply that we’re too stupid to understand Bayes theorem and probability, and medical decision making, so we should just shut up and take what they tell us to take, even though they have to put black box warnings on the shit telling us of the prevalence of ADEs or Adverse Drug Events. It’s bull.
68 young children killed as guinea pigs
to raise money for the "nearly $30,000 from the drugmaker
since 2000" given to Perry
and "more than $355,000...
to the Republican Governors Association since 2006
which was the year that Perry began to play a prominent role"
may not be important to YOU,
but for their families, friends, and conservatives
it is.
Wow!
Way to just smear a group..of fellow Freepers.
Could you have just said..."The Freeper Texans, that I've known"?...or the "Texas FReepers that have replied to me"?
But instead, you lumped them ALL together..????
Would you like to amend your statement?
You know...miss marmelstein...some folks might rightly call you obnoxious...for your post.
Ever think about that???
What I do oppose, is any government entity mandating the use of said vaccine, especially when there appears to be some sort of financial conflict of interest.
I don't mind the government advocating its use. A mandate, however, even with the much touted "opt-out" is antithetical to personal freedom.
Well, let me say that many Freeper Texans I’ve engaged with have been very nasty. I’m sorry to say this - I can’t think of another state in which this is true. I’ve been thinking this for at least a year now and today is the first time I’ve posted this opinion.
Now, hating New York is also a very popular activity on FR. Do you think this is wrong since some of us here are long-time conservative freepers?
Hating New York...is different than hating New York FReepers.
Heck, I'm an ex-SoCal...born and basically raised there. And I hate CA. I have family there. And I hate it..that they are still there. I hate what has happened to the State. I hate what the State government has done to the State. I don't hate CA FReepers.
Agreed?
Apparently you can opt-out of most.
It's also apparent that HPV is highly contagious and can be contracted through ways other than intercourse.
http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv.htm
22 million Americans? I think there's great cause for concern.
Politicizing this issue seems wrong to me but, Bachmann is mad that Perry knock her out of the top tier. She's desparate at this point.
Strawman Alert!
But Gardasil was not in common use, and the risks were not fully known then and may not be now. They certainly are not as well known as the risks for aspirin. We still aren't sure of the long term risks, because it hasn't been around for a long time.
New vaccines are not without risk. Surely you remember the trouble with Guillain-Barre syndrome, which was associated with the swine flu vaccine?
It's nice that there was no effect on your family. But it wasn't a guaranteed outcome.
Unlike polio or smallpox, there's no reason to force or even encourage an immediate full scale immunization. The virus isn't passed by casual contact.
It will be a long time before we really know if this reduces the level of cervical cancer, or how many variants of the virus it really protects from.
So, Gardasil has incompletely known benefits and unknown risks, and no immediate necessity. I can see why some folks didn't want to throw their daughters in that pool right away, and why they got mad when somebody else tried to.
Seems like a conversation best had on the NY board, but okay.
I haven't ganged up on anyone with other Texans ... but I'm damn sure gonna start now that we've been characterized as such @sses.
It IS a conflict of interest, Sir or ma’am. Your sarcasm marks you as uneducated, proud of your ignorance. In this day and age, and this climate, putting a researcher who has been funded by big pharma in charge of the largest research hospital in the world is more than a conflict, it’s putting the foxes in charge of the hen house.
HINT: There has never been a pharma funded piece of research that didn’t come out the way they wanted it to come out. Yes. That’s what I’m saying. Any research funded by pharma is trash. Keck.
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