| A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association has found some disturbing information about the prevalance of human papillomavirus (HPV) which can cause cervical cancer. The results, conducted only on women though the virus affects men as well, released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that over 25% of American women have the virus and, within the black community, almost FORTY percent of black women have HPV. In fact, 75% of us will contract HPV in our lifetime. Of the two types of HPV which cause 70% of cervical cancers, 3 million - MILLION American women carry one of the two viruses.
| Age | % | Race | % | Marital status | % | | 14-19 | 24.5 | Non-Hispanic white | 24.2 | Married | 17.3 | | 20-24 | 44.8 | Non-Hispanic black | 39.2 | Widowed, divorced, separated | 41.2 | | 25-29 | 27.4 | Mexican-American | 24.3 | Never married | 31.1 | | 30-39 | 27.5 | | Living with partner | 46.1 | | 40-49 | 25.2 | | | 50-59 | 19.6 | |
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Source: Journal of the American Medical Association
I was absolutely shocked when one Friday afternoon, Texas Governor Rick Perry issued an executive order, which mandated that all 11-year old girls in Texas must get the HPV vaccine. Rick Perry fighting for women's health? The man who told gays to leave Texas (literally) was showing compassion? It was too good to be true!
And, well, it was. Soon we learned about the money he got from Merck and other things. But whatever Perry's motivation, I felt the order was still a good thing and I expected celebration in the progressive sphere. Once again I was shocked when many progressives hated the order and even the vaccine!
And my initial celebration and excitement has now turned into digust and dismay.
What should been in my humble opinion a victory of science and women's health rights over repressive and dangerous fundamentalism became insteada mucked up discussion about motives and parental rights.
And hold on! I know many of you are concerned about those motives and rights. I am actually with you guys on that now and my disgust is not targeted at any of you or your legitimate concerns.
It is Rick Perry who I am thoroughly disgusted with. By accepting money from the vaccine's manufacturer (Merck), by "mandating" the vaccine, by simply associating HPV with his untrustworthy name, the deservedly unpopular Perry managed to do the unthinkable and put progressives and the religious reicht on the same side and thoroughly against him and the vaccine order.
Either the man is a political genius or a bumbling idiot and, if you saw his deer-in-the-headlights performance during Hurrican Rita, you'll know which one I'm voting for. |
 | Like Houston's freeways during Rita's evacuations, Rick Perry thoroughly muddied up the debate around the HPV vaccine and if you give me a chance, I'd like to change the frame of the debate.
And it has nothing to do with this order - and perhaps the less the better. Because this thing should never have been about Rick Perry or Vioxx or Merck or the 2008 Vice Presidential nomination.
The debate is about and should have always been about the medical health and civil liberties of women (and men!) which religious fundamentalists had once again held hostage - and mandated. |
Let there be no mistake. When we broke the story, I and several of you questioned Perry's motives and Merck's safety records in light of their Vioxx scandal. Further, how the heck were we going to pay for it and manage it? And what was that nonsense about "mandating"? Who are you, Perry, to tell me what I must do with my child, many of you parents asked.
By making the announcement late Friday afternoon, a favored tactic of the GOP when they want to sneak something by the public (read diary & comments), Rick Perry only created more confusion and animosity and distrust towards the order and in turn the vaccine. Merck smarted up when it later announced it would discontinue its efforts to use State officials like Perry, who are easier to buy, to push the HPV vaccine.
I'd like to take a moment to make a personal appeal to Merck and Big Pharma. Medicine is all about trust. To state the obvious, these are our bodies for Godsakes! There are not many more personal decisions we Americans can make than to entrust our bodies with you and your products. If we don't trust you, if you violate our trust, we're not going to swallow your pills, listen to your doctors, or use your medical procedures. Big Pharma often gets a bad rap but like any company, you guys do have your motivations and financials numbers you need to satisify. I think most American consumers understand and support your desire to be profitable.
But when you cloak your strategies, when you demonstrate a desire to protect the bottomline rather than the patient's health, you undo so much of the good work you do.
If the American consumer is trusting you with their very lives, is it too much to ask you, Big Pharma, to trust us? I know that sounds ideal and, yes, there are pragmatic corporate strategies, but companies that Americans have trusted and believed in - Ford, GE, Google, - are companies that will succeed for a long time. Yes, marketing is a bit of manipulation but long-term this has been the best sales and corporate strategy.
I think Merck learned from this fiasco a little bit about the consequences of trying to "sneak one by" the consumer and getting caught (and hopefully it's not just to not get caught next time). Unfortunately, Perry didn't seem to learn a damn thing.
Or perhaps he didn't care. Now that he rose as high up in the Texas political world, Perry can kick to the curb the last political base he had in the state: the "religious wackos" he and his buddy Tom Delay used to gain power.
 | After the order, Perry appeared over the weekend on national television, proclaiming his sensible, moderate values, qualites which would make for an excellent Vice President. I'm sure many women outside of Texas who have fought for the HPV vaccine and women's rights cheered for Perry under the mistaken belief that he really is a sensible man who will fight to lift the restrictions the religious reicht has placed on Americans.
Though these women were wrong about Perry, they were right about the fundamental issue and the basic frame that I believe this entire debate should have centered around but got lost when Perry got his ambitious hands around it: The Religious Reicht has been limiting access to medical procedures once again for the extreme, irrational views. |
When the news came out, people only heard "mandate" and "Order". No one heard "opt out" as in parents could opt their children out of the vaccine and everyone accused the state and Perry of forcing rules on Texans, of restricting their rights as parents. How the hell did giving women and parents access to a medical procedure become restrictive and limiting people's rights?!?
Only a bungling idiot (or a political genius?) could've done such a dastardly deed.
And yes, it is the religious reicht who limited your freedoms and your rights as a parent. Today we do not even have the choice of the vaccine because of the insane argument put forth by these extremists who believe the HPV vaccine will make teens have more sex.
Think about that for a second. Think about just how extreme a position these fundies have. They are ready to expose your child, your spouse or even you to cancer and a painful death - for what? To scare teens away from sex?
Gee, has that worked in the last, oh, million years that teens have existed?
| First off, WHAT the heck is so wrong with sex? If sex is so bad, why did God make it? If sex is sinful, then your parents are sinners! If fundamentalists really don't want sex to "pervert" our children, then teach teens openly and honestly about sex. Then teens will no longer feel a need to sneak around parents to experiment with sex, putting themselves in dangerous situations as well as risking unwanted pregnancies. These teens will also be able to defend themselves from child molestors (like, oh, Mark Foley) and they won't become dysfunctional and guilt-ridden adults who continue the cycle of abuse. And if you've ever made love - real love - to someone you care deeply about, then you can understand how spiritual and beautiful an experience sex can be. Why would we want to let someone's ignorance pervert something as spiritual and human as that? |  |
Now I personally believe 14-yr old teens should not have sex. However, at some point, teens will have sex. Perhaps your teen. Do you want to live in the real world or do you want to expose your child (or yourself) to cancer?
And, to borrow an analogy I heard Stephen Colbert plagarize (I'm watching ya, Colbert! Really. I am.), the idea that a vaccine will make teens mate like monkeys is like thinking that a tetnus shot will make you want to step on rusty nails!
Despite that logic, despite the medical evidence or even the possibility of eliminating a particularly horrific cancer and virus which 75% of us will get, your personal health choices and your choices as a parent were restricted once again by a small group of extremists who put ideaology over reason and evidence.
I wonder where I've seen this before. Hmmm, I wonder, I wonder. Oh, yeah! Iraq! But that's another diary.
And that is the frame I think we lost when Perry mixed his damaged DNA with the HPV issue. It is the religious reicht which is once again is limiting our access to medicines and medical procedures for their unscientific and unsafe beliefs. Not the other way around.
I know, I know. I'm repeating myself. But that's how frames - and mistakes (and, heck, even lies) - catch on. Like the one that said giving 11 year old girls an HPV vaccine takes away my rights as a parents - even if I can opt out.
That was the only thing I disagreed with out all the disagreements I heard over this order. The concerns about cost, about logistics, about trusting the vaccine's safety were all legitimate in my mind and definitely made me pause to reflect.
However, in my humble opinion, giving women (and men) access to health procedures over the protests of fundamentalism and calling that restrictve and limiting and a violation of civil liberties is a dangerous position for progressives and rational human beings to put themselves in.
I'm not arguing this order was a good thing - though I hope one day to find the debate it generated led to a good change in attitudes. There was plenty wrong with it. That Rick Perry was involved was perhaps #1.
But we should have the choice of the HPV vaccine along with any medical procedure - which we once again do not.
And thanks to Rick Perry and his incompetent and deceptive attempt to "moderate" his position and sneak one by the voters, we may have killed access to this and potentially other controversial medical procedures for a long time. I don't think the fundies who have fought the HPV vaccine could've found a better ally than when Perry became their enemy.
Come to think of it. Maybe that was their plan all along. Maybe, just maybe Perry really is a genius.
Yeah right. I'm sure some sexually abused boys at Pyote would disagree. |
