Seriously? The Health Department nurse specifically told me the vaccine basically prevented genital warts which are associated with cervical cancer. However, not all types of cervical cancer are stopped by the vaccine. I don’t know why you argue this obvious point.
I am not arguing that point. But I just do not see the real distinction. I recall the uproar over Jonas Salk’s vaccine which contained live viruses. It was a long way from being fool-proof, but such was the urgency over the epidemics, that the authorities pushed it through. Many people caught the disease from the vaccine, but the great majority did not. Many months a “dead-virus” vaccine against polio was developed and distributed.
IAC.my objection to Perry’s action is not that it was “forced,” on the public , but that it was what they call in government circles, “a big buy.” Merck was able to sell a good product in industrial amounts and cultivate its relationship with the State by giving us a “good deal.” There is a whiff of corruption to this, although it is done all the time, because of the lack of public scrutiny in the legislature. Perry was, I think, bowing to this concern. I don’t share Bachman’s outrage, in part because it is self-serving. But she is right that the coziness between big business and politicians —and indeed between little business and politicians—is not a good thing, because it leaves the rest of us out of the picture.