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Gov. Perry backs down on mandatory HPV vaccination
Posted by civil truth on May 8th, 2007
Faced with the near certainty of a rare veto override, Gov. Perry announced today that he would allow a bill by the Texas Legislature prohibiting state officials from mandating HPV vaccinations over the next four years to become law without his signature, the Austin American Statesman reports.
Gov. Perry caused an uproar last February when he issued an executive order mandating HPV vaccinations for all girls entering 6th grade. Many raised concerns about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, as well as expressing concerns about whether this mandate intruded too deeply into the lives of the children and their families. At that time, Raven wrote several post discussing the issues around the vaccine here and here and here and here and here.
Many of the Texas legislators, upset at having been left out of the decision-making process by Gov. Perry’s executive order, rapidly passed the bill, HB 1098. At the expiration of their four-year ban, the legislators can extend the ban or allow health officials to add the shots to the list of vaccinations required for school attendance. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Dennis Bonnen had these comments:
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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.
…parents and doctors will decide what is the best thing for a young girl to do over at least the next four years, and then we’ll revisit the issue.
Given the primal medical ethic of first doing no harm, the Texas legislature has acted wisely in allowing more time for researchers and clinicians to better assess the true value of this vaccine. Better some caution than to risk precipitating another public health disaster out of undue haste (like thalidomide or DES) that would shake the public’s confidence in this nation’s public health leadership.
May 8th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Perry was dead wrong to issue that. I would have sued to prevent my daughters to be FORCED to take that vaccine. I am sure that the vaccine is safe, however, as far as I know, and Raven or some one else can help me here, is HPV even contagious to where this vaccine is necessary to prevent its spread like the plague or something? If this was a public school requirement, I’d pay for private school. Glad to see that Perry did back down. You’d almost have thought he had a (D) next to his name with a power play like that…. :x
May 9th, 2007 at 12:38 am
The facts behind the hype on this are not talked about much.
In a nutshell:
15,000 women each yr will be DX with cervical cancer
Of those, 3000 will die.
IF ALL 15,000 women had this vaccine, there is still a 90% chance they ALL would have developed the cancer ANYWAY…WHY? Because the vast vast majority get the kind of cancers that are NOT caused by HPV. You won’t hear about this though. NO.
Of the 3000 women who will die, about 99% of them would die if they have the vaccine. Because their cancers were caused by other things and not HPV…like smoking, hereditary issues, and the like.
The vaccine is not a CURE. It is not necessary. And even most doctors haven’t fully researched the facts…they follow the hype too.
In my estimation, about 1000 women a yr MIGHT benefit from the vaccination…but not given to them as young girls. No…more like 18 to 20 yr sexually active girls. And rumor has it boys will be required to get the shots too…even though there is no definitive test that say it does anything for them. But then again half the mandated vaccines aren’t for boys but they have to have them.
May 9th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
And this is just out. Don’t believe it.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271112,00.html