Texas orders HPV vaccine for all girls

This vaccine does not prevent cancer and it is not a cancer vaccine. It MAY prevent 4 strains of HPV that MAY cause cancer.

If you or your daughter recieve this vaccine you should still have regular pap smears. That is because this vaccine only MAY prevent 4 types of HPV and there are hundreds of strains out there that MAY cause cancer. Cervical cancer is very preventable and treatable with regular pap smears. The vax IN NO WAY guarantees you will not get cervical cancer. In fact there is evidence that if you already host one of these strains of HPV the vax may CAUSE CANCER!!!

Please do your research people. Don't just go running because of some overly dramatic and emotional commercials.

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Sherri, it doesn't matter what anybody's future husband does or does not do. The issue is that the governor mandated this vaccine. He's got no right, no matter how scared of cancer you or he may be.

Like Alice said...don't go running around making decisions because of some slick marketing scheme. If you think the vaccine is a good idea, line up and get the jab. Just don't try to force my girls to do it, too.

The bottom line is not whether or not we all want cancer. The bottom line is that this governor has usurped parents' rights (and the children's rights to be parented by their own parents).

Alice...really? There has been so little about the actual vaccine. Everything is knee-jerk and I guess you really have to dig to learn anything about the vaccine. Good Americans don't like to dig. We've spent our 13 years in public school learning to do what is expected and what gets rewarded. Thinking often doesn't come into play.

I haven't researched this particular vaccine. I'm pretty hung up on the parents' rights thing. What the vaccine does or doesn't do or encourage is secondary.

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I object to any mandatory vaccines because of the side effects of vaccines, and the usually-accompanying-time schedule for vaccines. For example, the Hepatitis vaccine is usually given to infants, despite the fact that their immune systems can deal better with the vaccine at a later stage in life- and despite the fact that infants have very little risk of contracting Hepatitis.

Parents should be allowed to make the decisions based on their beliefs, research, and individual situations.

But then, I'm just cantankerous as someone who suffered a somewhat major (nerve damage) side effect of a vaccine.

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There are over 100 strains of HPV, 13 of which are linked to cancer by the CDC. Gardasil only prevents 4 of these strains, and only if the person has not previously been infected. If you read about this on the American Cancer Organization's site you will see that HPV does not cause cancer. It is an infection that can cause cells to become pre-cancerous if the infection lingers for many years. However, they make it perfectly clear that most cases clear up on their own and most people do not even know they have it. In fact a negative test for HPV means nothing other than you do not have it right now. Like many other infections the body is more than capable of clearing it up without issue fairly swiftly. In fact Merck highly suggests continuing to get Pap tests because that is still the best preventative measure. Numbers of cervical cancer in the US have been going down since 2002 because more women are getting their Paps testing.

Honestly people, instead of running around screaming about the sky falling actually taking a moment to look at the research will clear things up for you. But as a previous poster noted, 13 years of being taught to sit down, shut up, and think what I tell you from the public school system makes for a more easily manipulatable population. If someone could make money convincing people that drinking Pepsi would prevent cancer there would be a Pepsi machine on every corner and the masses would praise them for their efforts. LOL

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Available? Yes. Affordable? Yes. Mandated? Not without an opt-out for parents. One of the commenters said that Texas has provided that but I didn't see it in the article. I'll have to check further.

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Check out this blog dedicated to overturning Governor Perry's executive order mandating the vaccine:

http://overturnrp65.blogspot.com

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OK well i am not a parent yet, i am 21 years old married my husband 7months ago so hopefully soon, but my personal opinion is this: a vaccine is just that a vaccine as long as there are no side effects why not give it to my child, after all children get about 20 other vaccines and it's not like we explain what each and every vaccine is for. when i was getting a shot all i new was exactly that i was getting a shot and had no idea what it was for. so how about this, study the vaccine a little more and if there are no side effects why not have the girls get the shot and if asked what its for just say "it's the law to get this shot so you can get in to school" and still teach our children about sex and it's dangers.

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Diane,

There are no shots with no side effects.

I see your point that we don't have to explain to our kids exactly what the shot is supposed to protect them from. That's still not a satisfactory justification for mandating this shot.

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The parents will have no choice in the matter. The legislature never voted on this plan.
To make matters worse, the legislature CANNOT REVOKE this order! How can this be?

How and when did this ultimate power of EXECUTIVE ORDER come into being?

Why did a DEMOCRATIC people ever allow such a thing to happen in the first place?

The Patriot Act didn't help matters any, but the executive branches have been stealing power from the people for three-quarters of a century--a step at a time-- effectively over-riding the constitutions of both state and national government.

It would be well worth your time to understand the democracy breaking power our legislators have allowed the executive branches of our government.

Unfortunately whenever democracy ceases in any country, when the opinion of the majority of the people no longer matters, this becomes the course: Governor/President + ultimate, unrevocable power > emperor > Dictator (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot) > EVIL Empire! Is this the course of the USA?

Democracy in our country has been flushed down the toilet, not only in the state of Texas but in our national government as well. Executive orders are being issued in rampant fashion with total disregard to the will of the people.

But if the Congress/state legislature extended this ultimate power, the majority of the people still can rule and revoke the law (or amend it) that gave the executive branches such dictatorial authority before it is too late.

It is time to show outrage at the over-stepping of the bounds by our leaders. It is time to voice our opinion loudly to our legistlators. It is time to allow our congress who are supposed to be the voice of the people to have an effective role once again in our government and put an END to executive orders.


http://www.texasmonthly.com/community/blog/paulburka/index.php
The mandatory vaccination program was particularly unsuitable for an executive order. Various media stories have raised many questions about the vaccine. Cost of the shots? Extremely high, as much as $600. Availability? Not so good: reimbursement by insurance companies to doctors is so low that many doctors do not even offer the shots. Length of time that the vaccine is effective? Not clear. Cost of the program? I have seen estimates that range from $60 million to $600 million. At the risk of sounding hard-hearted, we should also ask whether the benefit is worth the cost. The average annual death rate from cervical cancer in Texas is 390. If the program costs $60 million, the cost per life saved is $153,846. If the program costs $600 million, the cost per life saved is $1.53 million. While preventing cervical cancer is certainly a worthwhile endeavor, there are many other needs in the health care area that affect many more people: providing coverage to the uninsured, restoring the funding for CHIP, and restoring the cuts that were made for doctors and hospitals in Medicaid reimbursement, to name a few. This is not the governor's decision to make. It is the Legislature's, and it is about time that somebody in the Legislature--thank you Jane Nelson--stepped forward to say so.

http://ahrp.blogspot.com/2007/02/merck-payola-pays-off-texas-governor.html
Noteworthy are the ties that bind the Governor to Merck and to Women in Government, the group that Merck paid to lobby for this mind-boggling order. The Associated Press reports that one of Merck's three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff. His current chief of staff's mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government. The governor also received $6,000 from Merck's political action committee during his re-election campaign.

Also noteworthy is that under then governor George W. Bush, TMAP, the pharmaceutical manufacturers' cash cow to mega-billion dollar cash transference from the public purse to Big Pharma, was launched. TMAP (Texas mediction algorithm project) is the vehicle that catapulted psychotropic drugs--in particular patent protected antidepressants and antipsychotics--to blockbuster status despite lack of scientific evidence that the drugs work to improve mental health, and despite evidence that these drugs wreak havoc on both the mental and physical health of consumers.

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THIS IS NOT A CANCER VACCINE! Period.

It is a vaccine for 4 strains of HPV. 2 of which are responsible for approximately 70% of cervical cancers, the other 2 of which cause genital warts.

Here are some facts

- on average it takes a minimum of 10 yrs for a woman to develop cervical cell changes as a result of chronic HPV infection. The women involved in this study were followed for 5yrs at the most.

- women who contracted HPV after 2 doses but before the 3rd were excluded from the results.

- there have been numerous reports of fainting, guillaine barre syndrome, arthritis, intense pain at injection site that is immediate and hasn't disappeared months later.

Do a search for HPV in the vaccine adverse events reporting system and you might be surprised at all the reports that have come in in just the limited months since the vaccine was approved.

Pap tests are the best way to prevent cancer and detect cell changes before there is any threat to lives or fertility.

And why should women bear the sole responsibility for assuming the risks of the HPV vaccine when men also get it, carry it and can develop penile cancer from it?

BTW - Texas has a philisophical exemption available that will allow girls to continue to attend school without getting the HPV vaccine. This can be completed for any of the mandated vaccines or all of them depending on your beliefs and preferences.

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i had an 11 year old child who was raped. that was bad enough, but then 2 years later she developed cervical cancer. the vaccine cuold have stopped this . since we never know what life will throw our way we should protect our girls and make this mandatory.

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i had an 11 year old child who was raped. that was bad enough, but then 2 years later she developed cervical cancer. the vaccine cuold have stopped this . since we never know what life will throw our way we should protect our girls and make this mandatory.

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My beef is not with the vaccination itself but with the fact that it's mandated and that Perry went over the legislature to order it. I hate that control of my own child has been attempted to be removed from my own hands. I think the vaccine is great, but I think how Perry went about it and his ties with Merck among other things are a big turn-off. If he was promoting the vaccine and encouraging (but not mandating) it, I'd probably consider getting my daughter vaccinated one day. But to have him outright order it, I admit I'm more rebellious about it. There's nothing "free" about America when you're dictated how to raise your children and what to put in their bodies, prevention or not. I also hate that it's a new vaccine. I hated the chicken pox vaccine and held off on even getting it for my kids until I absolutely had to. I had witnessed way too many serious complications from that among my own neices and nephews and I wasn't thrilled about watching my own kids go through the same complications.
Comparing HPV to Polio is stupid. Grasping, maybe? At any rate, the whole thing reeks of politics and not the betterment of tomorrow's young women.

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I speak a committed democrat and liberal. If I represented you in the Texas House I would likely vote for what the Governor has attempted to enact by fiat. What bothers me is that our governor based solely on a campaign contribution he got from mereck and not because he gives a tinkers damn about anything beyond his campaign debts did what he did by an unconstitutional edict. This edict reflects the great division between that part of the GOP that is influenced by the dictates of the business community and their lobbyists and the GOP base which is influenced by Pentacostalism, by the Megachurches, and by Non-Denominational Christianity. Now that the base has as its champion a State Senator that owns 2 radio stations (Dan Patrick)there is going to be hell to pay for the dictatorial act of the Governor. Sic Semper Tyranus.

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