Posted on 09/15/2011 1:35:21 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's story about a woman who claimed that her daughter suffered "mental retardation" after receiving a vaccine against HPV could fetch the woman's family thousands of dollars. But the family can only collect if Bachmann or the unnamed woman can prove the story is true.
Two bioethics professors have offered to pay more than $10,000 for medical records that prove the anecdote Bachmann told after Monday night's Republican presidential debate is true, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:
Steven Miles, a U of M bioethics professor, said that he'll give $1,000 if the medical records of the woman from Bachmann's story are released and can be viewed by a medical professional.
His offer was upped by his former boss from the University of Minnesota, Art Caplan, who is now director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics. Caplan said he would match Miles' challenge and offered $10,000 for proof of the HPV vaccine victim.
"'These types of messages in this climate have the capacity to do enormous public health harm,'" Miles said of why he made the offer. 'The woman, assuming she exists, put this claim into the public domain and it's an extremely serious claim and it deserves to be analyzed.'"
Bachmann told the story after she criticized opponent Texas Gov. Rick Perry for using an executive order in 2007 to mandate that all girls entering the sixth grade receive a vaccination against the Human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
>You know you can’t prove a negative.
There are no flying spaghetti monsters in my office.
(I look up, I see none).
Q.E.D.
did I just prove a negative?
The claim was that a perfectly normal 12 year old became mentally retarded.
Bachmann will need to produce a mentally retarded teenager that was known to be perfectly normal to her community, her friends and her teachers before she received the vaccine.
No such teenager exits and a dozen “professionals” can't fake the existence of such a teenager.
Only an entire community could theoretically fake such a story in a "Waking Ned Devine" scenario.
LOL, ouch, I think I’m gonna cry.
Seriously, although Bachmann is not my first choice I have no major issues with her.
That being said, she needs to dispense of this or it will continue to haunt her, wait and see.
It’s certainly going to have legs pushed by all you Michele haters here on FR.
When did you stop beating your wife?
Cute, but specious.
At least - despite my “feelings” - I can write a coherent post. Unlike you, you twit.
Well indy, this seems to be the week for sighing and rolling our eyes like pinwheels.
http://www.drugs.com/clinical_trials/studies-gardasil-merck-s-cervical-cancer-vaccine-hpv-16-vaccine-component-gardasil-presented-7192.html ~ this has Merck’s OWN study. There were 24 deaths among those in the study group 2 of which involved overdose/suicide. Now, about that reward ~
Rick Perry owes her big time for her big mouth. She scored big points at the debate, although I didn’t agree with her, but like my wife and most women.....when she had won the argument...she couldn’t shut up.....and with that little fib...she lost big time and I doubt seriously if we hear anymore about guardasil in the next debate... Thanks Michelle!
Yup, when these politicos start with the stories about this person or that person, they better have the facts and back it up.
Necver before have I read so many posts written by a veritable mob! Can this be Free Republic? It’s as though each poster is trying to gain the respect of Michael Moore and his stinkio lefttists by throwing more rotten garbage than the last guy at a sinceree Christian woman with a good record in Congress as well as in the private sector!
I am ashamed of every one of you!
However, although side-effects of vaccines are often rare, they can be devastating to those who happen to be susceptible. We have a recent event in Scandinavia, where it turned out that the vaccine against swine-flu caused narcolepsy in sensitive subjects. According to publications in medical literature, there are indications that also the HPV-vaccine can cause severe neurological side-effects (though, the cause and effect is not yet proven).
Demyelinating disease and vaccination of the human papillomavirus
Human papillomavirus vaccine safety in Australia: experience to date and issues for surveillance.
Although, one talks about sensitive or susceptible individuals, it is often the case that one cannot know prior to the event who is sensitive or not. That has of course a very strong bearing on the question whether to make vaccinations compulsory or not.
PS: The above was meant as a general point re vaccinations. I know that there was an opt-out clause in the (not approved) Texas legislation.
There is simply no place at either Free Republic, the Republican or Democrat party for women candidates for president.
And do not believe that when the guys and gals chime in and say that if a Margaret Thatcher clone were to suddenly appear, they would jump on board. They would not. They would hate her, too.
And, no, I am not comparing Michele Bachmann to Thatcher.
Perry has set it up to make us all look like racists.
Nobody liked that remark. It was an idiot remark to make.
US citizens are second on his list.
If she has this woman in the audience on Monday night (I think that is the next debate), I hope all the FREEPERS bashing her gives her an apology. She is a much more conservative than Perry. That quite frankly is fact. We are supposed to be picking a true 100 percent conservative this time around. Perry is 75 percent conservative with his government intervention and illegal alien goodies. This election we are going to win regardless so why not choose the best conservative in the group? Does not make sense. Actually it does, the Republicans pick the loser candidate every time. It looks like we are going to pick a less than perfect politician again to represent us. So frustrating.
Merck has a bad track record here when it comes to anesthetics. Several years back their study investigator was found to have fraudulently concocted his evaluations of Merck's anesthetics including Versed ~ a very commonly used sedative. As my doctor put it "gee whiz, an overdose turns your brain to jelly. WOW!!"
De novo, NO ONE trusts Merck per se when it comes to these studies. Doesn't mean they make bad drugs ~ but sometimes they do ~ their quality control systems have been easily sidetracked by individuals with low ethical standards.
It is so shocking. I would love to know Jim’s opinion of this.
The trench wars on FR during elections are always dispiriting, but despite the odd misogynist I still think most candidates will get a fair hearing. Governor Palin, at least, has strong support here - although the PDS appears to be a disease resistant to the most obvious facts.
Imho, the only thing Bachmann has to prove is that there is a woman who told her that story. I don’t believe that she claimed to have verified the story, just that it was told to her.
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