I was just on my local paper's website, investigating rumors that Kendra Wilkinson (one of E!'s Girls Next Door) is not 3 miles from my house. Right. Now. I'm a fan of the show, but not in that gotta-see-the-star kind of way. I'm interested in seeing her simply to satisfy my own curiosity regarding her real level of intelligence (can anyone really be THAT stupid?!). I found nothing helpful about K-Dub's current or expected whereabouts, but I did come across this little nugget.
Go ahead and follow the link. I'll wait.
Now, I know there is a lot of controversy over Gardasil, the HPV vaccine by Merck. I know that a lot of parents are pissed that anyone would even suggest their daughter should be vaccinated against a sexually-transmitted disease at the age of eleven or twelve (yes, I'm sure your daughter will be safe, just as long as your head is completely covered with sand). I also know that the vaccine's potential side effects are scary, and that many people think it's totally unnecessary, even if it is effective. I get all of that.
But what pisses me off is that the government -- a group of thousands of bureaucrats, mind you -- have decided to play doctor. Apparently, the government has weighed the risks (and there are MAJOR risks with Gardasil) and has decided what's best for your child. No, it does not matter if you are uncomfortable with the risk factors; the government is comfy with the numbers, so too bad if your daughter is one of the casualties. Luckily, Virginia is the only state pompous enough to follow the federal government's recommendation and require vaccination of all girls aged twelve and up (and theoretically, this includes homeschoolers). And very luckily, Virginians have big enough mouths and screamed at their Representatives enough to belay that order for another two years.
Immigrants, however, are not so lucky. They are apparently required to get every vaccination on the fed's list of recommendations, whether any individual state agrees and requires the shots or not. And to add insult to injury, the immigrants have to pay for it themselves. The Land of the Free isn't free, my friends. You gotta be rich enough to get in, but then you're gonna be so poor you'll wish you lived in Mexico. I hear rent's cheap there.
No wonder so many immigrants are illegal.
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3 comments:
Just wondering what your source was for the "MAJOR risks with Gardasil"?
I agree with you. They can't prove the severe side effects are from the vaccine but they can't prove they are not either. I will stick with the old fashioned way and let the idiots out there be the experiement. Maybe in ten years or so I will think about it depending on how many people have died between now and then.
Well, this is just a blog, so my comments are based on my own knowledge and opinions; I don't research and cite sources and such, since I'm really just here to blather on about stuff.
That being said, however, my "knowledge and opinions" are based on what I read and talk to other people about. My comment about Gardisil's "MAJOR risks" was because, over the months, I've read article after article about such risks. A quick Google search can find sources to support either side of any argument, including a vaccination's side effects. Check out http://women4hope.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/three-deaths-linked-to-mercks-hpv-vaccine-gardasil-does-the-benefit-really-outweigh-the-risk/
or the comments at http://www.cafemom.com/hotlist/current_events/5673/Pushing_Gardasil for just two examples.
In no way do I feel these are reliable sources; I'm a cynic, and I doubt *everything.* But the risks of Gardisil are not the point, whether they are major or minor. The point is that drugmakers and/or the FDA need to make as much information easily available as they can, then allow *parents* to decide whether *they* are comfortable with the level of risk.
My own kids are very healthy (coming from a long line of very healthy people) and can, on their own, fight off many of the diseases that children are now vaccinated for. In my own case, the risks of side effects of many -- not all -- vaccines would outweigh the risks of my kids not being able to fight off the disease (whether it's chicken pox or HPV). The government doesn't see it that way, and were my kids girls, I'd have no choice in the matter. In no area are blanket decisions good for everyone, and individual health care decisions should certainly not be made by a bureaucracy.
But again, it's not the vaccine that I have a problem with. It's the government's arrogance to assume the responsibility of making that decision for its citizens.
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