Republilcan gov. Rick Perry has singned legislature which makes it mandatory that all girls aged...?

Question

between 11-12yrs in the state of Texas be vaccinated against HPV from 2008.
There is evidence that he has ties with the Merc Phamaceutecal company that produces this drug. Isn't it a crying shame when politicians begin to put their own selfish, selfcentered, self profiting greed ahead of the best interest of the people that they are supposed to protect and serve. What do you think of this and where do you think this kind of gorvanance is heading to?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070202/ap_on_he_me/cervical_cancer

I agree with Mora fan and Amy, I think that the government in this case is overstepping its boundaries. It should be ultimately upto the individual to decide what to do with their body. Their responsibility is to put the information out there. If they are allowed to do this now whose to say what else they might decide to do in future. What if you belong to a religion that prohibits the use of medicine and what if you develop a condition and decide not to fight it. Will you be forced to get treatment even when in alot of cases the drugs are almost equally as harmful if not more than the disease itself? The government should be there to serve the people not to dictate. This just seems to be an example of dictation to me.

Answer 1

I think it's criminal. Looks like TX is being run by the big drug companies.

Answer 2

It is in the best interests of the young women to be vaccinated against that virus. It is a very common cause of a very common form of cancer. Whether the governor has ties to the company that makes the vaccine is something that should probably be investigated, but even if it is true, the law is a good one, because it may prevent thousands of women from developing cervical cancer.
Get your priorities straight.

Answer 3

I think that it is obvious he is looking out for his own interest instead of all those 11 and 12 year old girls' interest. HPV is a sexually transmitted disease-catching it can be avoided if the state put more money into sex ed programs to educate the girls (boys too) and help them make informed decisions like, hmm, sleeping around isn't such a great idea.

Answer 4

HPV causes cervical cancer. I'd get the shot if I was a girl. A lot of right wing christian groups have been fighting the vaccination because they think girls will be more promiscuous. Even if they do profit at least the girls will be safe.

Answer 5

Well I don't know if that is true. But, I feel government should not do this. I think that if every female is educated about the benefit of this drug we should have the right to make up our own mind.
And if he does have ties with Merc. There is a conflict of interest and he should be removed from office.

Answer 6

The vacine is 100%, that is no cases have developed HPV who took the vacine. HPV is the most common STD and cancer kills people. It seems to me very safe as well. These are very good reasons.

The arguments agaist the vacine are all Darwinistic. (Darwinism the religion, not the science).

Answer 7

Actually, HPV vaccine can do a lot of good for all girls (not just Texan) regardless of Mr Perry's motives (whatever they might be)

Answer 8

This is faith-based medical policy making. Either Perry has faith that the benefits of this new and largely untested vaccine outweigh its risks, or is just turning Texas kids into Merck test subjects for the lobby payola. The current facts about GARDASIL's benefits and risks are inconclusive at bet.

The Facts About GARDASIL

1) GARDASIL is a vaccine for 4 strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), two strains that are strongly associated (and probably cause) genital warts and two strains that are typically associated (and may cause) cervical cancer. About 90% of people with genital warts show exposure to one of the two HPV strains strongly suspected to cause genital warts. About 70% of women with cervical cancer show exposure to one of the other two HPV strains that the vaccine is designed to confer resistance to.

2) HPV is a sexually communicable (not an infectious) virus. When you consider all strains of HPV, over 70% of sexually active males and females have been exposed. A condom helps a lot (70% less likely to get it), but has not been shown to stop transmission in all cases (only one study of 82 college girls who self-reported about condom use has been done). For the vast majority of women, exposure to HPV strains (even the four “bad ones” protected for in GARDASIL) results in no known health complications of any kind.

3) Cervical cancer is not a deadly nor prevalent cancer in the US or any other first world nation. Cervical cancer rates have declined sharply over the last 30 years and are still declining. Cervical cancer accounts for less than 1% of of all female cancer cases and deaths in the US. Cervical cancer is typically very treatable and the prognosis for a healthy outcome is good. The typical exceptions to this case are old women, women who are already unhealthy and women who don’t get pap smears until after the cancer has existed for many years.

4) Merck’s clinical studies for GARDASIL were problematic in several ways. Only 20,541 women were used (half got the “placebo”) and their health was followed up for only four years at maximum and typically 1-3 years only. More critically, only 1,121 of these subjects were less than 16. The younger subjects were only followed up for a maximum of 18 months. Furthermore, less than 10% of these subjects received true placebo injections. The others were given injections containing an aluminum salt adjuvant (vaccine enhancer) that is also a component of GARDASIL. This is scientifically preposterous, especially when you consider that similar alum adjuvants are suspected to be responsible for Gulf War disease and other possible vaccination related complications.

5) Both the “placebo” groups and the vaccination groups reported a myriad of short term and medium term health problems over the course of their evaluations. The majority of both groups reported minor health complications near the injection site or near the time of the injection. Among the vaccination group, reports of such complications were slightly higher. The small sample that was given a real placebo reported far fewer complications — as in less than half. Furthermore, most if not all longer term complications were written off as not being potentially vaccine caused for all subjects.

6) Because the pool of test subjects was so small and the rates of cervical cancer are so low, NOT A SINGLE CONTROL SUBJECT ACTUALLY CONTRACTED CERVICAL CANCER IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM — MUCH LESS DIED OF IT. Instead, this vaccine’s supposed efficacy is based on the fact that the vaccinated group ended up with far fewer cases (5 vs. about 200) of genital warts and “precancerous lesions” (dysplasias) than the alum injected “control” subjects.

7) Because the tests included just four years of follow up at most, the long term effects and efficacy of this vaccine are completely unknown for anyone. All but the shortest term effects are completely unknown for little girls. Considering the tiny size of youngster study, the data about the shortest terms side effects for girls are also dubious.

8) GARDASIL is the most expensive vaccine ever marketed. It requires three vaccinations at $120 a pop for a total price tag of $360. It is expected to be Merck’s biggest cash cow of this and the next decade.

These are simply the facts of the situation as presented by Merck and the FDA.

Answer 9

actully not really. think about how many women and children die from this disease every year. to me it looks as though he is trying to protect the woemen of texas. and now that there is a vaccine he can do that.

Answer 10

Watch out for this type of legislature ! In Africa ,in 1978, it was mandatory to recieve the smallpox vaccine! It was administered to the people ! there was one ingredient they didn't mention !!!!! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT WAS !!!!!