Texas Gov. orders anti-cancer vaccine

[Monadnock]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070203/ap_on_he_me/cervical_cancer_8

Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

I think this is wrong on so many levels.

1. The government forcing Kids to take a vaccine, without parental consent.

2. Forcing the costs on the taxpayers

3. He's got ties to Merck, the maker of the vaccine, in about um-teen directions

4. He went over the heads of the legislature, and the people, to push a personal agenda

...

 

[FearlessFreep]

Agreed on all points

 

[tellner]

The only one that doesn't bother me is #1. Kids are already supposed to be vaccinated against a number of diseases in order to enter school. Parental consent doesn't come into it. On all the others the governor is being a venal idiot.

 

[Kacey]

The only one that doesn't bother me is #1. Kids are already supposed to be vaccinated against a number of diseases in order to enter school. Parental consent doesn't come into it.

Yes and no - parents can object on religious and/or moral grounds - has to be done in writing, but it can be done.

On all the others the governor is being a venal idiot.

Can't really argue with the idiot part - bypassing legislative procedure and not allowing voters to vote/rally/etc. is a perversion of the legal system.

 

[Monadnock]

The only one that doesn't bother me is #1. Kids are already supposed to be vaccinated against a number of diseases in order to enter school. Parental consent doesn't come into it. On all the others the governor is being a venal idiot.

True, but I for one am skeptical as to the effectiveness and the long term consequences of pumping kids with vaccinations. And this isn't chicken pox or something really contageous through common contact. And to be told to do so by a governor and not a doctor...

 

[Ping898]

It may be harder than everyone realizes to get the vaccine and cost money parents don't have....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/02/02/cancer.vaccine.ap/index.html

But in the real world, Gardasil is getting used less than doctors would like. Pediatricians and gynecologists from Arizona to New York are refusing to stock Gardasil because of its $360 price for the three doses required and "totally inadequate" reimbursement from most insurers.
Pediatricians, in particular, are rebelling, fed up after years of declining insurance reimbursement for vaccines, an explosion of new vaccines and fast-escalating vaccine prices.
Many practices must tie up $50,000 or more in vaccine inventory, run multiple refrigerators, insure the vaccines and spend lots of time on inventory management. They also must absorb the cost of broken or wasted vials and say that's not possible with most insurers reimbursing at just $2 to $15 over the $120 per dose charged by Gardasil's developer, Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.
"Doctors are drawing a line in the sand on this. They're either not giving it or requiring a surcharge," said Dr. Daniel Schwartz of Broadway Pediatrics Associates in Westport, New Jersey, which charges patients a $25 surcharge per shot.
.....
Doctors say manufacturer Merck should do more to help, given that Gardasil is the most expensive vaccine ever. They say it gives them a couple months to pay but not the customary discount for ordering multiple vaccines.

 

[Kacey]

While I am, generally, for immunization, I saw something on the news last night that caused me to stop and rethink my position on requiring this vaccine to go to school - that, unlike all of the other vaccines required for school attendance, this one guards against an illness that cannot be passed by casual contact - all of the other mandatory vaccinations are for viruses that are airborne or transferred by casual contact with an infected person or a surface touched by an infected person. Given that perspective, I have reconsidered my position, and think that this is an issue that should not be affecting the schools.

Perhaps the vaccine should become mandatory prior to any type of doctor-prescribed birth control? However, most young women don't get birth control until after they are sexually active, at which point the vaccine may be too late... and that still leaves boys not receiving the vaccine, and since they can pass the virus, I still think that the only way to stop this virus is to vaccinate both genders.

I'm not sure what the answer is at this point, except that it is not to increase vaccinations to improve Merck's bottom line.

 

[Phoenix44]

Hepatitis B vaccine, a mandated vaccine, isn't spread by casual contact.

 

[shesulsa]

If this is an STD, why are only females getting vaccinated? What about the male carriers? Just a rambling thought ....

 

[Phoenix44]

Well, there's a good question. Gardasil should prevent anal cancers in gay men--but the vaccine hasn't been tested in men.

 

[tellner]

Hepatitis can't be spread by casual contact, but it's pretty easily spread, it's so nasty, and there isn't any really good treatment. I'm willing to extend vaccination that far. HPV can result in a terrible, fatal disease for women, but half the people spreading it are men. If the point of vaccination is to prevent the spread of the disease it makes no sense to target just the women.

 

[Monadnock]

Merck suspends it's lobbying for pushing it's drug into our kids.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/merck_cancer_vaccine;_ylt=Am0FtxMNZqRBYNL16M_uUgwDW7oF

 

[tellner]

Merck had perviously donated $50,000 to the Texas governor.

http://keyetv.com/topstories/topstories_story_053053516.html

Well fancy that.