Re: 2012 Elections Part I: All Politics is Yokel
I'm too lazy to look. but what the hell could be the possible reasoning behind someone legitimately opposing the HPV vaccine?
Are they also opposed to MMR vaccines? DTP? Polio?
There are times I want to just want to bang my head into the wall to bring myself to their level of intelligence to try and understand.
There's a small but insistent anti-vexy movement out there. Their post hoc ergo propter hoc "logic" is that since we've had an increase in the number of kids with autism and the number of kids getting vaccinated (and more and different vaccines available) that must mean the vaccinations have "caused" the autism. Of course, using that logic, perhaps 2% milk is causing the autism. And this "increase" in autism could merely be improvements in our ability to diagnose it. They changed their focus from the vaccines to a preservative that used to be in vaccines callerd thimerosal (sp), but no connection between the preservative and autism has been found, and it's been removed from vaccines in any case. No reputable study has shown a higher incidence of autism in vaccinated kids (which you would expect) nor a lower incidence of autism among kids not vaccinated (which you would also expect).
These folks assert their rights not to have their children immunized while also asserting their right to send those kids to school. This increases the risk to kids who, even though they've been vaccinated, may not have total immunity. In other words, they're asserting their rights to put other kids at risk. And it's not just the HPV vaccine. As a general rule, they're against all vaccinations.
They come loaded for bear with annecdotal horror stories of vaccination deaths, disfigurements and illness. And quack research they've discovered on the internet. Yes, there are instances where vaccinations go wrong. But in very small, statistically insignificant numbers. It reminds me of parents who won't let their kids trick or treat because of the "danger" of adulterated candy. Then the next day send the kids to school in busses not equipped with seat belts.
Perry admits he was wrong, both to mandate the vaccinations by executive fiat (he's right) and to make parents "opt out" rather than "opt in." Sort of like the Book of the Month Club, we're sending you this book unless you tell us not to. But there's no doubt these two competing vaccines are safe and effective and can dramatically reduce the cases of vervical cancer out there. Naturally, the "sex before marriage" question is part of the resistance to what Perry did in Texas, but this anti-vexy movement has been out there long before Perry's misstep. This issue is much bigger than what Rick Perry did or did not do and why. The anti-vexy types could put untold thusands of children at risk and not just in Texas and not just from cervical cancer. And Michele Bachmann brought no glory to herself by claiming some child someplace became "retarded" as a result of an injection of Gardisil. That's quackery, pure and simple, and she should withdraw the statement and apologize.
Vaccines have elminated diseases which used to kill thousands, tens of thousands. Plague, small pox, infantile paralysis (parents in this country used to spend their summers in dread that their kids would wake up paralyzed for life--you had to have lived through it to have some sense of the terror) and many others. It's a tragedy when even one child dies because of an immunization. It's an even bigger tragedy when children who could have been saved die because of superstition, junk science and fear. Tens of thousands of Americans die in automobile accidents every year and nobody suggests we should forego cars because of the danger. The "danger" from vaccinations is infinitely less than the danger from cars.
