HPV Vaccine

Perry won't veto virus vaccinations bill
AUSTIN, Texas - Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday said he won't veto a bill that would block state officials from following his order that all sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against a virus that causes cervical cancer.

What I like best of the article, and seems to nail it on the head, is this: "We should not and are now not going to offer the 165,000 11-year-olds in Texas up to be the study group for Merck to find out what the implications of this vaccine would be for these girls," he said. [Republican Rep. Dennis Bonnen]

The study group. Seems to me it indicated uncertainty of the side effects (of course). Yet with all that uncertainty, people are still willing to "mandate" it. Scary.

I also enjoyed this editorial on the subject. "HPV is only transmitted through sexual contact, unlike other diseases for which schoolchildren are required to get vaccines, such as polio and tetanus. The United States has always been on the forefront of vaccination studies and has rightly mandated many inoculations against such easily transmitted diseases. School-age children are simply not at the same risk for contracting HPV as they are for contracting, say, chicken pox. We urge the District and other states to rethink their position on mandating the HPV vaccine."
(can I get an Amen?!)