Ever since the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was approved last year by the FDA, it's been at the center of a lot of sanctimonious right-wing histrionics.
An article yesterday by the Associated Press pretty well sums up the hot points on the issue. Foremost is the tired old right-wing assertion that giving a girl the vaccine will make her promiscuous. Sure, HPV is sexually transmitted. But so are a whole lot of other diseases. The HPV vaccine isn't going to prevent syphilis or herpes or AIDS. But it will prevent cervical cancer. Doesn't that count for something among the so-called "pro-life" folks?
Besides, the vaccination process can make a good opening for educating our daughters about the other types of sexually transmitted diseases and how to prevent them. After all, ignorance is far more likely to lead to promiscuity and disease than a potentially life-saving vaccination. But, of course, the anti-vaccine contingent likely overlaps significantly with the dangerously irresponsible abstinence-only crowd, so this argument won't fly with them.
I'm not necessarily in favor of making this vaccine mandatory for all girls. After all, it seems that most of the vaccinations required for entry into school are for infectious diseases that can be spread by classroom proximity. HPV doesn't travel in a sneeze or a cough.
But the bottom line is that the right-wing stance is not about saving lives. It's about controlling women. As with the anti-choice lobby, it's about keeping in place all possible unwanted consequences for girls and women who have sex.
Meanwhile, they're all too happy to let the Viagra flow freely.
When will the left get it through their heads, the HPV vaccine has less to do with sex than it does with being unsafe, unproven and unneeded.
ReplyDeleteYOu think it works because they told you it does? 17 girls died during the trials of Gardasil, how safe does it sound now?
If the fox told you he fixed the lock on the henhouse door, would you believe him too?
Recent article on the side effects that young girls are living through -- what will you do when the vaccine proves to make girls infertile, as has been reported early on, but seems to have disappeared from the news? What would you tell your daughter, as a mother, when she is harmed by this vaccine because you blindly believed a pharma company that will make billions off of our little girls?
Calm urged on Gardasil
By Karen Collier and Jane Metlikovec
May 22, 2007 01:18pm
Article from:
FEDERAL Health Minister Tony Abbott and health authorities have urged parents not to panic over reports that dozens of teenage girls have been sickened by a new cervical cancer vaccine.
In one case being investigated, a girl was left temporarily paralysed and unable to talk after receiving the Australian-develope d Gardasil vaccine.
Health authorities have denied the cases are directly related to the immunisation.
Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott and doctors urged parents not to panic, saying the benefits outweighed the small risk of side effects.
Mr Abbott said risks were taken seriously but there was no evidence of a serious problem with the vaccine.
Schoolgirls across Australia are being immunised with the breakthrough Gardasil, developed by Professor Ian Frazer.
Australian Medical Association president Mukesh Haikerwal said it was important girls were still vaccinated.
"We have got for the first time a vaccine that prevents cancer," Dr Haikerwal said.
Sacred Heart Girls' College student Natasha D'Souza was treated after she was temporarily paralysed and unable to talk for hours after her injection at the Oakleigh school on May 7.
The Royal Children's Hospital said the vaccine was not to blame and tests on the girl were continuing today.
Natasha D'Souza was one of seven Victorian students taken to hospital after vaccinations this month. Most fainted or complained of feeling dizzy.
Sacred Heart Girls' College principal Christopher Dalton said today that 26 girls were taken to the school sick bay after injections.
Five were taken to the Monash Medical Centre, but hospital staff ruled out vaccine complications.
"It is not uncommon for girls of this age group to react to vaccinations in ways that are not necessarily physical in origin," Mr Dalton said.
The school will press ahead with more vaccinations next month.
Parents' permission is sought before students line up for shots, which is given in three doses over six months.
Hundreds of girls in the US have reported reactions such as temporary paralysis, fainting and broken bones from falling over after receiving the shot.
Gardasil protects against strains of the human papilloma virus, or HPV, that leads to most cervical cancers.
Most, if not all, vaccines have side effects, some of which can be life threatening. Even that DTP vaccine that all children get can cause death. Read the statistics.
ReplyDeleteBut we don't hear so much about that. Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis aren't sexually transmitted. Coincidence?