Looks like Michigan might soon require 6th grade girls to get HPV vaccinations.
First, let me present the first entire paragraph to the article:
Sixth-grade girls in Michigan could be the first required to be vaccinated against cervical cancer under a proposed new law.
Now, since we already require other vaccinations this seems to be reasonable, right?
Well, we don’t actually require them. Parents are always allowed to sign a waiver that will allow their children into public schools without getting the diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, polio, etc. vaccines. I cannot imagine the legislature actually making this “required” without also providing the waiver option. It would be a major divergence from the status-quo not only because the other requirements have a waiver option but because this infection is sexually transmitted while the others are not.
However, we’ve already nailed my beef with such legislation. It isn’t how it’s written, it is how it is presented to the public.
When you pull up the current official document of “Required Childhood Immunizations for Michigan School Settings there is no mention of a waiver at all. The media outlets reporting on it all term it “required” when it likely wouldn’t be.
That’s my beef. I don’t want to see people herded down the path of immunization, even for the older vaccines, just accepting that they “must” be done because a government employee said so.
People tend to take the path of least resistance. So, they’ll do the vaccinations without really thinking about it much. Of course, if you also present the waiver option immediately to parents that have not done any immunization procedures out of ignorance you open up a new path of least resistance that may not be the best thing for society as a whole and the actual child. This point was brought to my attention by a very intelligent woman, whom I love dearly, that doesn’t really agree with my take on the issue.
To that point, I’m not sure how to strike a proper balance. How you present the option of the waiver, which should be well understood by the local educators, without also protecting children from ignorant parents? This I do not know, and I will likely ponder it for some time.
Should the HPV vaccine be promoted? Absolutely. Over 50% of the population now carries HPV and around 3,700 women die of cancer annually because of cervical cancer caused by it.
Should it be mandated by the government for school girls? Absolutely not — no medical procedure should ever be mandated by the government. While such programs are often very good, and done with the best of intentions we have seen them go awry in this country before. Incidentally Michigan was the first state to propose a eugenics program in the United States. Right here in this country we sterilized women up until 1976* without their knowledge in an attempt to better our society.
I see grave danger in accepting government mandated health care procedures. I do not worry that this very proposed program will do so, but I do worry that the populace will continue to accept said programs out of hand. If we, as a people, continue to accept them without great scrutiny I have no reason to believe that our “benevolent leaders” will return to their previous thinking and start right back up with the previous atrocities.
*: I’ll see if I can dig this up. The Wikipedia article says 1960’s but I recollect an article some years back that brought the issue to light again stating that it was up until 1976 in either North Carolina or South Carolina. It was where I learned the term “eugenics” so you’ll just have to trust that I have a decent memory. That, or you can disregard my date and just admit that we did some pretty f-’ed up things in this country anyway.
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I posted on this too. I did some research cuz one of my readers wanted to argue this issue. The problem is that there are 5.5 (or 6.2 depending on the CDC fact sheet you use) million new cases of HPV a year. With about 100 different variants of the virus. The vaccine works on 2 of the versions that cause cancer. About 9400 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer. If you figure that half of the 5.5 mil are women then you’re lookin’ at 0.34% cancer rate with HPV. If you look at that versus the fact that the study went only 5 years and with only 11,000 women in it, no WAY am I exposing my daughter to that shit.
I’m with you on this Justin. I think all girls should get vaccinated, but it SHOULD NOT be REQUIRED by our government. I think congress will end up adding a waiver option… but after reading some of the quotes from some of the parents out there, I would almost want to make it required for the sake of the kids.
Some of the parents are ridiculous:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12956410/
I am afraid of having an option of a waiver because of all the ignorant parents that are associating giving their girls this vaccination with giving them a free ticket to have sex wildly. I have no idea how they make that correlation but they do. I know when I got my tetnis shot, I wasn’t like … “Sweet, where are the rusty nails??? I can stab myself and not get tetnis”. This really shouldn’t be an issue if everyone just used their brains. This vaccine is a good thing. People should get their daughters vaccinated. If they choose not to, that is fine, they should have the right. I just hope they are choosing not to because they have done some research and found out something that we don’t know. I would hope they wouldn’t deny their child the vaccination due to some moral issue, that really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I think I am just saying people that do stuff because of “moral” reasons piss me off… Half of them do it, not because they feel strongly about an issue. They do it because the people they associate with (Work, School, Political Party, or Church) “think” they feel strongly about it, and they don’t want to be looked upon badly by others… It comes down to: “MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN THOUGHTS PEOPLE!!!” Don’t do what the herd does. Make your own damn decisions…. Jackasses!!!!
Sorry… I had to go off on “morally good” people there. My Bad :)
Thanks for the number, LL. I was coming at this presuming it was pretty much a 100% guarantee with all the media hype around it.
Mark, I’m with you there too. I can’t fiure out why the conservative Christian crowd is making such a big deal out of this. I don’t ever remember folks taking about HPV even in West Michigan as a reason not to have sex. There’s still Herpes and the HIV to scare ‘em with.
Well, that and getting preggers.
Keep in mind that even though there are hundreds of versions of HPV, only a handful are known to cause cervical cancer. The rest are pretty much benign or annoyances. Any HPV with warts is not the type that causes cervical cancer so this is a real case of something with no symptoms at all. That, along with the general lack of knowledge in the public has contributed to it being so widespread.
“It is important to note that HPV types that tend to cause genital warts are not the same ones that cause cervical cancer.”
… and …
“HPV-induced cancersAbout a dozen HPV types (including types 16, 18, 31 and 45) are called “high-risk” types because they can cause cervical cancer, as well as anal cancer, vulvar cancer, head and neck cancers, and penile cancer (Parkin 2006).”
… from …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hpv
If I had a girl going into middle school, she’d get the vaccine.
I DO have a daughter that will go into middle school next year. And there is no way I would get her vaccinated with something that has been studied for such a short time and with such a small study group. Shit, even the Chicken Pox vaccine was studied for 20 years in Japan before they approved it here and another 5 or so before they started requiring it. I’d rather talk to her about condom use and ALL the things you can get without using them.
You’re entitled to your opinion just like anyone else. I respect that. You are probably aware, but just in case … condom use does not prevent contracting HPV. Most people don’t even know they have it. If I had to choose, I’d take my odds with the vaccine instead of the cancer but that’s just me.
No, actually the CDC and HHS say that they aren’t sure of the efficacy of condoms with “ulcer diseases” and HPV because of the skin to skin contact (where the condom does not cover) and the methodology problems in studying that, but there has been shown a lower rate of cervical cancer (and other HPV related diseases) with condom use.
Again, people don’t know when they are infected. There is no “test” for HPV and which strains you may or may not have (other than the kind that cause warts) as I’ve tried to get one done multiple times before. Just go ask a medical professional for a test and you’ll see. If I am wrong on this, I would love to be able to test and actually know. Also most long-term partners don’t use protection after a certain period.
Vaccine for my kids, none for yours if you so choose. I agree to disagree on this one. I am 100% with it not being mandatory by law or to attend a school that is required yo attend by law (which I also do not agree with) as I fear the tyranny of governmental control over our rights is a greater risk than the results of the little good that awarding them that power may do towards society through a parental role in law. Regards to you as a person LL as I mean well.
To clarify from the previous post … there is no HPV test for a man.