Letters to the Editor

• Freedom of Choice vs. Public Health Benefit -- Freedom of Choice Wins

  [Read the article: Texas governor orders mandatory HPV vaccination]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I am not suggesting that people should not have the option to take the vaccine, or that one should "tell everyone you know to take every medicine by Merck out of their medicine cabinets, tell every doctor to stop prescribing them, every pharmacy to stop stocking them."

  I am suggesting that there is no justification to make this particular vaccine a MANDATORY vaccine.

  And I am suggesting that the motivation to make this particular vaccine a mandatory vaccine seems to be more FINANCIAL than public health oriented.

  And I am suggesting that one should have the OPTION to weigh the risks of the vaccine against the risks of getting HPV, and then cervical cancer, and to decide FOR ONESELF whether to get the vaccine.

  Everything in life is a risk, and a tradeoff. But no one is making it mandatory to go somewhere where they might get mugged, or walk on slippery ice.

  But the government IS making it mandatory to allow someone to shoot a vaccine into your arm, three times, as a child or young adult, without any testing on long-term implications of the vaccine, and no compelling reason why said vaccine should be mandatory when you can prevent fatality from HPV with annual Pap smears and followup.

  Mandatory.

  That's the problem...

  Unless one can demonstrate some major public health benefits to MANDATORY mass vaccination for THIS PARTICULAR vaccine -- note, I do not have a problem with vaccines for virulent diseases like smallpox, etc. -- then I don't see what the problem is with citizens of the United States having the right to choose whether or not to get vaccinated with Gardisil.

  This is an issue where freedom of choice outweighs any potential "public health" benefit of mandatory vaccination.

  Permalink Sunday, February 4, 2007 09:09 AM

• Exactly what part is made up?

  [Read the article: Texas governor orders mandatory HPV vaccination]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Had enough wrote about me that, "As for your risk/benefit ratio YOU MADE THE WHOLE THING UP."

  Had enough clearly hasn't "had enough" time to do some basic research.

  I'd challenge "had enough" to identify which of these statements is "made up?" -- rather than verifiable or truly obvious facts...

  • The Gardisil vaccine prevents only 70% of HPV. (quote from Merck's website).
  • Most HPV reverses itself anyway and does not progress to cervical cancer. (quote from Merck's website).
  • Cervical cancer is on the decline, except in African-American and Hispanic women. (NIH)
  • Cervical cancer is preventable with annual Pap smears and early detection of cervical dysplasia.(NIH)
  • The vaccine has only been tested for a short amount of time and we do NOT know the long-term effects. (Basic fact.)
  • Merck has a questionable track record of covering up side effects of drugs in the interest of its financial botton line. (Vioxx...)
  • The vaccine does NOT eliminate the need for annual Pap smears in those who get it. (Basic fact.)
  • The vaccine does NOT eliminate the need for annual Pap smears, or have any effect on the death rates of those who will be getting cervical cancer in the next 10 to 20 years -- since cervical cancer typically takes at least 10 years to develop. (Basic fact)
  • Merck cannot assure us that girls who receive this vaccination will not suffer long-term health effects from this vaccine. (Of course they can't. But very few vaccinations can offer that assurance either.)
  • Many Americans do NOT have health insurance. (Basic fact, if you want specifics, see: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/uninsured/index.html)
  • When this vaccine becomes mandatory in a state, tax dollars will pay hundreds of dollars directly to Merck for every girl in your state. (Basic fact)
  • The low-income mothers and grandmothers of vaccinated girls, who don't have access to free annual Pap smears, will continue to develop cervical cancer at the same rates as before. (No reason to believe that there will be any change, except perhaps an increasing rate, as it's on the rise in these communities)
  • HPV is not a public health epidemic menacing our girls at record rates. (20 million Americans with HPV, compared to debilitating diseases like diabetes, thyroid, asthma, etc...)
  • Pneumonia kills 40,000 a year, but the Pneumovax is not mandatory. (seems pretty clear).
  • Mandatory vaccination is a public health necessity when you want to eliminate the incidence of a disease in a population, so that you can basically wipe it out, i.e., smallpox. (Basic fact.)
  • But you can't wipe out HPV and cervical cancer in the population unless you mandate vaccination for every single person who is sexually active in the U.S. (Seriously --- even then, you also either ban sex by anyone already infected, or wait until they're all dead, and then you have to make sure that no one in the U.S. has unprotected sex with anyone from outside the U.S. who has not been vaccinated for HPV or who does not have one of the 30% of HPV that are not protected by the vaccine.)

  The bottom line: facts are facts.

  And the fact is, there is not a compelling enough public health rationale to make this vaccine mandatory.

  Permalink Sunday, February 4, 2007 09:26 AM