AAR reporting administration is against HPV vaccine for women...

[wildflower]

Have others heard the report today?

The report said the administration is against an HPV vaccine for preventing cervical cancer, because it could encourage pre-marital sexual activity. They prefer to promote abstinence programs.

I remember a discussion of this a while back, but today it's on the AAR news.

ON EDIT: Found something, mentioned in here:

Scientists’ advice shunted aside under Bush
SHOWCASE | March 14, 2006

By Sam Kean

Michael Specter begins his deconstruction of the Bush Administration’s science policies with a typical political plea: for the children. The human papillomavirus (HPV) has been proven to cause cervical cancer, which kills around 5,000 U.S. women each year and hundreds of thousands worldwide. Thankfully, there are two vaccines in the pipeline that could effectively eliminate HPV. Many would like to see such a vaccine included in normal childhood inoculations, like measles, mumps and rubella. Says one Nobel laureate quoted in the article, “It has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives each year.”

Yet the odds of these vaccines receiving the final push toward FDA approval are slim. Why? Because HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, most often encountered (in mild strains) as genital warts. And conservatives in Washington argue that eliminating the threat of HPV can only promote casual sex. Specter quotes Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn, a physician, as saying: “Pre-marital sex is dangerous, even deadly. Let’s not encourage it by vaccinating ten-year-olds so they think they’re safe.” Public health has become a strictly moral issue.

The Bush Administration also opposes HPV vaccines and instead promotes abstinence-education programs, which might be fine if such programs worked. Yet, citing the best available evidence, Specter writes,

“When it came to preventing sexually transmitted diseases, students in the programs fared no better than those in the control group . The study also found that students who promised to remain virgins were less likely to use contraception when they did have sex, and they were less likely to seek S.T.D. testing.”

snip

more at http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Showcase.view&showcaseid=0036

UPDATE: Nothing on AAR news at 4 PM ET.

[EST]

1. Indiana.

[wildflower]

8. Is this happening in Indiana?

I don't know why I can't find a link on this. I'll listen again to AAR at the top of the hour and see if I hear it again.

wf

[EST]

18. Yes, it's been a huge issue there for nearly a year, now.

Their fundie puke regime wants women to die if they screw.


edited to add: The vaccine must be administered at a particular age, just pre-pubescent, or it is valueless. That's the reason for the reference to 10 year olds.

[CottonBear]

2. Of course they are. They want women to be punished for having sex

by getting cervical cancer and dying. :(

[radfringe]

15. actually

there was a study done which showed a higher incident of cervical cancer among women who do not have conventional hetero-sexual sex. Rates are highest among nuns compared to similar group in general population

[CottonBear]

20. I don't know about that study, however, HPV virus is rampant

in the US population. As usual, men don't suffer the ill effects of the virus (they simply carry it and get warts), only women do. :(

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. So just kill us all now and then figure out how to have men reproduce.

Abortion would never be outlawed , if that were possible.

[still_one]

3. If true this becomes another issue for the Democrats

It is immoral, unethical, and ANTI-WOMEN

[Webster Green]

11. Democrats?

Where?

[still_one]

19. Feingold

[Webster Green]

23. Yep, and Boxer, and Harkin...

I knew there was a few around somewhere.

Thanx for your help.:*

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Campaign issue if ever I saw one.

[hippiechick]

5. old link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=554768

[wildflower]

16. Thanks for the link. I finally found a recent link and edited my OP...

sounds like the same thing still going on.

wf

[BrainRants]

6. What about MARRIED women? Are they divinely immune from cervical cancer?

YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!

I heard that on AAR news also.

GODDAMMIT these morons and their junk science are really, really fucking pissing me off.

[Mandate My Ass]

14. The only way it's 100% effective is if given before the person

has become sexually active. Half of all adults have been exposed. There are only a few strains that are virulent enough to cause cervical cancer. However, this should be available to anybody that wants it and something like 86% of parents polled said they'd want this added to the standard course of vaccinations.

In other news, Bushco and the RW Taliban don't care that we want to keep our kids safe.

[sui generis]

7. this administration does nothing that isn't underscored by MONEY

No HPV vaccine because the government would have to subsidize it and that costs.

No gay marriage because gays are a higher health risk pool and marriage would mean shared health insurance and the insurance lobby doesn't want that.

No gay marriage because gays who receive estates from their partners have to pay income tax on it, and it adds up to significant federal and state dollars.

No federal prescription drug price regulation because people who can't afford basic healthcare should not live long enough to be welfare parasites on social security and medicare.

The list goes on and on. This government doesn't give a flying piece of pre-owned excrement about abstinence or morality or real family values.

[Triana]

9. The TALIBAN Strikes Again...(n/t)

[Not Me]

10. If I had daughters, I would plan a trip to a free country

and have them immunized while there. This is insanity.

[Progressive4Life]

12. Link on vaccine and opposition from Ctr for Amer Progress

Don't Let Politics Interfere in the Fight Against Cervical Cancer

I'm pretty steamed about this myself. I have a really good friend who was infected with HPV by an unfaithful husband and is now battling full-blown cervical cancer. The Rapture Right would rather see women die than be protected.

[wildflower]

17. I'm sorry about your friend

Kind of blows the argument about pre-marital sex out of the water, doesn't it.

I'm surprised this hasn't been getting more media coverage.

wf

[magellan]

13. It was also covered in the March 13 edition of the New Yorker

In detail, and there was no happy face on it.

BushCo have also said they'd come out the same way against an HIV vaccine for similar reasons.

It's the empowerment of religious barbarism, this desire to pre-empt future "bad behavior" by punishing all now. And it doesn't work, unless the object is to pre-judge people and let them die for no good reason.

[myrna minx]

21. Sheesh-As if people reflect upon inoculations that they received as kids.

I often think about how I may engage in risky behavior since I was immunized against diphtheria as a tot. :crazy: I know whenever I receive my tetanus booster shot, I roll around in rusty nails...just.because.I.can. If we give an inch...it's all over folks.