Cool Your Jets Perry

I've been disgusted with politics for quite a while now. I avoid the news like the plague. I don't care which party you belong to anymore, I am disgusted with the entire process. Take the new Texas Governor mandate that as of September 2008, all girls entering the sixth grade are required to receive the Gardasil vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. I have a daughter that will be entering sixth grade in September 2008. I am definitely going to have to research this issue, but more than likely I will be opting out. I have a child that is EXTREMELY sensitive to medications. She has broken out in rashes after taking other vaccines, she's allergic to red dye, and after taking ibuprofen since she was very small, she has developed an allergy to that medication. I am not about to give my child a vaccine that has only been approved since June of 2006.

Of course, I am extremely suspect of the motives behind Governor Perry's reasons for issuing an exectuve order. The Associated Press article of Feb. 3, 2007, by Liz Austin Peterson (http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8N1RSSG2.html) points out the following:

• Merck doubled their lobbying budget in Texas and funneled money through Women in Government.
• Mike Toomey, one of Merck's three Texas lobbyists, was Perry's former chief of staff.
• TexasRepresentative Dianne White Delisi, Perry's current chief of staff's mother-in-law is a state director for Women in Government.
• Merck's PAC (political action committee) gave $6,000 to Perry's re-election campaign.

Now, I'm no math whiz, but at a cost of $360 per child for the three shot series, with just the amount of students in Texas (which I was not able to find), that is one serious chunk of change in Merck's pocket. Based on his order, you are looking at all girls in Texas from between the ages of 9 and 21. Imagine that on a 50 state scale. Merck stands to make BILLIONS from this vaccine.

Now, I am not opposed to the idea of a vaccine that prevents cancer. I think it's a wonderful progress in modern medine, if it actually does what they are saying it does. I do have some questions. For instance:

• Is it a permanent cure or is it's effectiveness going to eventually wear off?
• If it's effectiveness wears off, will there be any sideeffects of revaccination?
• How often would revaccination be required?
• How do we know the virus isn't going to mutate and then we're back to square one? (After all isn't the flu shot just a best guess at which strain is going to be the strongest?)
• Do we know the actual success rate yet? The chicken pox vaccine hasn't been completely successful. Some kids still end up with a mild case of chicken pox. But is there such a thing as a mild case of cervical cancer?

Anyway, it's late and I will get off my soapbox now.