Texas Governor Knows Best

[RationalBiker]

Apparently it's the Texas governor and not father that knows best. Here's an article telling how he passed into law that school aged girls are required to get an STV vaccination. What's next?

[Qwertz]

Although the article is primarily one on politics, it is also a good example of the media's shoddy science reporting techniques. Though to what extent the article's scientific misstatements are the result of the Governor's office's lack of knowledge about HPV, cervical cancer and Gardasil isn't clear.

Not all cervical cancer is caused by HPV. Vaccinating against HPV will not eliminate the chance of developing cervical cancer. Although Merck is marketing Gardasil as a cancer vaccine, it is a viral vaccine. Gardasil protects against four common strains of HPV, two of which cause genital warts, not cervical cancer. The two strains Gardasil protects against are implicated in some 75% of all HPV-induced cervical cancers. HPV is a sexually transmitted vector for cervical cancer. Though there are ways to get HPV without sex, few of them lead to cervical cancer. This fails to jive with Perry's conservative Christian approach towards sex - it's like providing condoms and abortions to unwed teenagers, because Gardasil only protects against cervical cancer that is sexually transmitted by HPV.

Another interesting effect of Merck's 'cervical cancer vaccine' campaign is that all the advertisements for Gardasil are targeted towards women. Gardasil is not marketed to men. HPV causes genital warts, penile cancer and anal cancer in men as well. HPV-caused genital warts are one of the handful of incurable STDs transmittable in spite of condom use.

Gardasil is a remarkable advance in viral vaccine technology, and could prevent lots of cases of cervical cancer and other HPV-related illnesses. However, the justifications put forth in that article in favor of vaccination (not even addressing the compulsory aspect) are quite silly, given the context.

-Q

Edit: Clarity. Somewhat.

Edited February 6, 2007 by Qwertz

[Bold Standard]

Here's an article telling how he passed into law that school aged girls are required to get an STV vaccination.

They are all required to get this vaccination, which is, by the way, 360$ a pop. Most medical insurance covers it; however, there are many, many uninsured families in Texas.

Perry's friends are going to make a lot of money off of this vaccine.

Edited February 6, 2007 by Bold Standard

[BaseballGenius]

They are all required to get this vaccination, which is, by the way, 360$ a pop.

They can get out of it for "philosophical or religious reasons".

This governor is making these vaccinations mandatory in order to hold up his end of the deal, right? Merck gave the governor some money for his campaign, and the governor probably promised some pull for them, I assume.