The recent local flap about our governor's executive order requiring the vaccination of all girls entering 6th grade has really raised a ruckus with parents, health advocacy groups and even health care providers.
Doctors are having a hard time with the vaccine. The cost for the vaccine, Gardasil, is about $120 a dose, with a requirement of three doses. That total cost exceeds the typical reimbursement from HMO, and with the additional administrative costs of storage and filing then offering the vaccine has a very low financial return for doctors.
Parents object to the mandate nature of the vaccine and see it as a decision for parents, not government. Some have objected on concerns that the vaccine will encourage sexual activity in their daughters since it removes a disincentive in the form of an STD. And more than a few parents are balking at the vaccine's uncovered cost.
I'm not a parent, nor do I play one on TV, but I can understand the parent's concerns about their child's healthcare decisions being taken over by government edict. The slow encroachment of government oversight on the lives of individuals is something we've all seen over the past 10-20 years. Nobody wants the inept hand of bureaucracy intervening in their health care. And I think the parent's worries about the vaccine somehow turning their daughters into raging, randy beasts is overblown and a canard that ignores whatever values they might have already installed in their girls.
On the other hand, if this executive order is intended to stop a communicable disease and prevent avoidable burdens/costs on the healthcare system, then that's worth thinking about, too. In Texas, children are already receiving a range of required immunizations for the protection of themselves and society, and parents seem just peachy about that. Why not add the HPV vaccine to the list? And since the vaccine is a mandated by the state then the state should bear the burden of cost.
And: Does the vaccine also suppress HPV in males? If so, then boys should also receive this.
By fiat, our governor really botched the handling of something that could do a lot of good.
Comments (2)
You're forgetting this damning angle to the story: Rick Perry's former chief of staff Jim (or Mike?) Toomey is now Merck's chief lobbyist in Austin. Coincidence? I don't think so.
I am all for the Gardisil vaccine, and plan on making sure my daughter is vaccinated at the appropriate age. I had two friends in college who were diagnosed with cervical cancer as a result of HPV. Of course, the connection wasn't public knowledge in the 80's, but both girls had been diagnosed with HPV, and both were treated for cervical cancer within the year.
Do I think it needs to mandated for all Texas schoolgirls? I think mandanted vaccines should be confined to those illness spread easily through the air or touch: whooping cough, diptheria, chickenpox, polio.
My children are vaccinated for Hepatitis, but I know several parents who chose not to vaccinate for Hep due to the fact that HepB is spread much like HPV. As of the time my children were vaccinated (5+ years ago), HepB was a recommended, but not mandated, vaccine. That may be different now, I don't know. Gardisil is expensive, production is limited, and the virus isn't spread by sitting on a toilet seat. I think it should be treated like the HepB.
This is a state that doesn't require the eminently affordable FLU vaccine every year, so why the push for Gardisil? See the first paragraph.
Posted by CLG | February 21, 2007 9:25 AM
Posted on February 21, 2007 09:25
If Texas were the only state promoting the vaccine, I'd be inclined to give a lot more weight to connections to Merck. But it's not; it's only one of something like 20 others.
If nothing else, the hoopla and fuss raised because of how Perry approached the issue has raised the vaccine's profile dramatically. I certainly knew nothing about it prior to now, and while I plan to consult with my daughter's pediatrician before making a decision, it's an option I wasn't even aware I (she) had.
Either way, though -- I can't help being amused by the fears about increased STDs and sexual promiscuity from some quarters.
Posted by Polimom | February 22, 2007 2:47 PM
Posted on February 22, 2007 14:47