Common Sense

I get to bring this up because I’m going to a walk today called Race for the Cure that is all about curing breast cancer and celebrates the women who have survived it.

The FDA is one short step away from approving a vaccine that has been shown to be very effective at preventing cervical cancer. Thursday, an advisory panel unanimously recommended it approval. But it has been a hard road getting here because several religious groups have tried to hold up this vaccine.

What? Are there religious reasons to support cancer? What’s this all about?

It is because the vaccine isn’t for the cancer itself, but for an STD.

Tests in more than 17,000 girls and women have shown that the vaccine, called Gardasil, is nearly 100% effective in blocking cervical cancers caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus.

Gardasil blocks four strains of human papillomavirus. Two strains are thought to be responsible for 70% of the 15,000 cases of cervical cancer diagnosed and the 4,000 deaths caused by it in the United States each year. Worldwide, 400,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, and 200,000 die of it. The other two strains it blocks are behind about 50% of genital wart cases.

Human papillomavirus, commonly called HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted disease in this country, with about 20 million people infected.

Ah ha! No we see. The report goes on to say that the vaccine is most effective if given to girls before they become sexually active. These religious groups wanted to block this vaccine because they feel it will make the children engage in sex. Like condoms. Give kids a vaccine that keeps them from getting HPV and they will just begin fornicating on the spot!

Or, we could do it the Christian fundamentalist way. Withhold the vaccine, let teenage girls engage in sexual activity anyway, get cervical cancer and die. That’ll teach ‘em.

This is gallows humor I’m using here. There’s no way to really laugh at the idea that some people seriously think the best way to protect our children is to keep a vaccine off the market that could be potentially life-saving. It’s just, it’s just insane.

“We welcome the vaccine,” said Pete Sprigg of the conservative Family Research Council. But, he added, “decisions about sexual health are tied up in personal values, and parents should have the right to transmit personal values to their children.”

Parents who know their children do not plan to be sexually active may see no need for the shots, added Linda Klepacki, a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family.

They’ve relented somewhat and now they just demand that the vaccinations not be mandatory. One has to wonder if smallpox was an STD, would they want to opt their daughters out of the vaccinations of the 1970s?

It’s just mind-boggling… no, that’s not strong enough: Batshit-insane. I’m not sure that’s even good enough. ‘Mommy and daddy don’t want you to be protected. We want the threat of getting cancer and dying to be hanging over your head everytime you kiss a boy.’ I think that borders on criminal negligence and abuse.

What if we could develop a vaccine for AIDS? We’re talking about something that is nearly 100% effective against four virulent strains of of a plague that has been linked to cervical cancer. We could nearly wipe out the threat of HPV-caused cancer in an entire generation by simply approving this drug and requiring mandatory vaccinations for girls 10 years and older.

You know what, I’m too disguested by these people to really finish this post.