Posted on 09/13/2011 8:09:37 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Earlier today, I noted that Michele Bachmann finally scored points on Rick Perry by hitting him on his ties to Merck and linking that to the Gardasil mandate Perry imposed through executive order in Texas. This is a fair point on Perry’s record, even given his apology for pursuing the mandate through EO instead of through the legislature, and it’s not surprising that Bachmann was the candidate to first take advantage of the opening. (Mitt Romney passed a mandate on health insurance for all citizens of Massachusetts, which pretty much puts this issue out of reach for him.) However, Bachmann took a winning argument about the method and the wisdom of mandating a vaccination for a limited-spread virus and turned it into an anti-vaccination argument, especially in this post-debate argument on Fox with Greta van Susteren.
>>>"There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result of that vaccine."<<<
Huh? “Mental retardation” typically takes place in a pre- or neo-natal event. Autism becomes apparent in the first couple of years of life — and primarily affects boys. Gardasil vaccinations take place among girls between 9-12 years of age. Even assuming that this anecdote is arguably true, it wouldn’t be either “mental retardation” or autism, but brain damage.
The FDA has received no reports of brain damage as a result of HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix. Among the reports that correlate seriously adverse reactions to either, the FDA lists blood clots, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and 68 deaths during the entire run of the drugs. The FDA found no causal connection to any of these serious adverse events and found plenty of contributing factors to all — and all of the events are exceedingly rare.
The “mental retardation” argument is a rehash of the thoroughly discredited notion that vaccines containing thimerasol caused a rapid increase in diagnosed autism cases. That started with a badly-botched report in Lancet that allowed one researcher to manipulate a ridiculously small sample of twelve cases in order to reach far-sweeping conclusions about thimerasol. That preservative hasn’t been included in vaccines for years, at least not in the US, and the rate of autism diagnoses remain unchanged.
The most charitable analysis that can be offered in this case for Bachmann is that she got duped into repeating a vaccine-scare urban legend on national television. It looks more like Bachmann sensed that she had won a point and wanted to go in for the kill, didn’t bother to check the facts, and didn’t care that she was stoking an anti-vaccination paranoid conspiracy theory, either. Neither shines a particularly favorable light on Bachmann.
Rick Santorum took the correct position on the Gardasil issue. We mandate certain vaccines in children because we mandate children be gathered for educational purposes for many years (in private or public schools), and certain diseases are easily communicable in those settings. By mandating vaccinations against whooping cough, measles, and mumps, we are protecting children who would otherwise get exposed without any action on their part except compliance with the law. That’s not true with HPV, and parents should decide for themselves whether to inoculate their sons and daughters with Gardasil or Cervarix. If Perry wanted to make those inoculations more accessible, he could have crafted an opt-in system rather than forcing parents to opt out.
I didn’t say I liked it but doubling down on stupid is what I would expect from you.
Now I spell my name wrong?
Shezzz
Well, "Hell" and "Bender" are two words -- so you screwed up.
Shezzz
It’d be a good idea to put a time line on Perry’s indiscretions (he is a former Democrat — as is Bachmann) to avoid misleading people about his current policy stands.
Merck probably donated to everybody in the race, like the man who was urged on his deathbed by his pastor to “renounce the devil” and who replied that he was in no position to make any enemies.
But if Perry didn’t see the big picture about Merck and its marketing, he was letting himself be used as a pawn.
Health Beat: Update--Gardasil for Boys?
In 2007, South Korea approved it for girls and boys.
On July 27, 2007, South Korean government approved Gardasil for use in girls and women aged 9 to 26 and boys aged 9 to 15.
Did Perry not know how to read in 2007? Was he just marching to the orders of Merck? This is troubling on so many different levels and the fact that he is now just trying to cover his arse makes it worse.
With the nightmare created by RINOs teaming up with donkeys, I am on high alert whenever a politician's base is willing to give him a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card on a subject where he was clearly in the wrong.
“Does not mean that some of these drugs can’t have devasting consequences.”
But we do know that cervical cancer has devastating consequences.
And we know that young girls, even from very nice families, do go off and have sex and get infected.
I think the problem is that people see their 12 year old daughter and just don’t want to think about how they can get it. They don’t want to look at her and imagine she could possibly do anything in the future that would lead to an infection.
I love drug companies. They make wonderful products and save some lives. I voluntarily use their products all the time.
I like them even more when they don’t make deals with politicians.
My father worked in research at a major drug company for many years. Had a great retirement.
My God, this women is an idiot.
Heheh. Some "against" too. It's part and parcel of the public square.
I know 2 women who have or have had cervical cancer. One is dead and the other is battling for her life.
The one still living got it from her serially unfaithful husband. They’re divorced but he is continuing to spread it to all the women with whom he sleeps.
But this isn’t the first time Bachmann has shot her mouth off without thinking about what/how she was saying what was on her mind. Patterns make a difference...
Since when has the anti-vaccination crowd been concerned with facts?
I don't see why it has to be given routinely to newborns unless there is an immediate risk of exposure. The immune system isn't very developed at that time. I agree that it should be required before attending school.
Agreed, the charge of cronyism with respect to gardisil is extrememly weak, and certainly insufficient to nix Perry as a candidate. There are far better reasons to nix the other candidates, i.e. lunacy (Paul), no exec experience and her own cronyism via ethanol subsidies (bachmann), never held office (cain), and then of course Romney needs no explanation.
I opted out of the vaccine for my daughters but I do have a story that is somewhat in support of the vaccine. We have a history of urinary reflux in my family and 2 of my daughters had it. When I took one of my daughters for a nuclear cystogram the nurse asked me a few health questions. One of them was “was she sexually active?” When I looked at her, horrified, she said, “I know but I have to ask. You’d be surprised how many girls say yes.”
My daughter was 10 years old.
“Hellbenders are one of the largest salamanders in the world, growing to over 2 feet long.” — www.hellbender.com
LOL. I don't care who you are, THAT was funny! My mental picture involved "Bender" of Futurama.
If Bachmann has some facts or other information to back up her allegation, she should come forth with it. It’s a very serious charge.
If it was nothing but gossip and innuendo, she just killed her (already descending) candidacy.
Bachman is spreading pure fabrication about the vaccine though. It does not cause retardation. It does not kill little girls. It does not automatically create little sluts out of girls.
My point is that I agree with her on the vilification of Perry’s mandate. But she loses all credibility when she spouts pure crap.
She senses that she got some points, and she goes over the top to reinforce how “correct” she is.
And when she does that, she loses.
From your article:
The theory
cautious approach
suggested
done some research
even less data for boys
- - - - - -
Hardly matches your claim of well known.
- - - - - -
So you are claiming it was wrong not to require it for boys before it was approved for boys?
It was not approved for boys for use in the US until October 2009.
http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/ucm186991.htm
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