Texas governor orders anti-cervical cancer vaccine for all schoolgirls

I've read all the published material on the new vaccine. But I still say it should be up to the parents. Perry didn't let a bill go through the state legislature - he just made an executive decision to make it mandatory. So yeah, I have a problem with the fact the government is making it mandatory.

I don't quite know where exactly I stand on this issue.  I don't belive that the gov't should mandate such a new drug.  I do believe that it should be on the market for QUITE a while (like someone said 10+ years). 
 
Personally, I won't be getting it.  I am dealing with dysplasia (have been for over a year).  I've gone through numerous pap smears, 2 colposcopies (biopsies), and 2 LEEPS (loop electrosurgical excision procedure).  I'm still dealing with abnormal paps (doctor doesn't know why they keep coming back abnormal), but we keep watching them.  Last time I was in to see her (Oct) she actually mentioned the shot to me.  I told her I wasn't quite sure since it was so new.  She said it was safe and had been tested for quite a while.  My thought was "so was the BC patch" (I didn't say this to her).  She then thought about it for a second and said since I'm dealing with dysplasia right now, the shot would more or less be a lost cause for me.  Which I was fine about because it is so new AND I really didn't want to get a bunch of shots.  [8D]

I'm indifferent and I'll be getting the shot pretty soon.  Mainly cause my mom keeps bugging me to get it. 

I would get it for my daughter anyway (if I had one), but I'm with Gina in that I wouldn't like being forced to do it.

i dont think any vaccines should be mandatory. i should be the one to decide whats best for my babes. some would argue that if people weren't vaccinating their children that diseases would spread, but there is one simple answer to that, if you don't want your kids to get it vaccinate them.

 my kids get all their innoculations, and i would prefer others do theirs too, for the health of the children, but that is not my choice and i don't think it should be.

I too hate the thought of "big brother" telling me what I must do with my body or my childrens.
 
But, how many laws have been enacted to protect us, protect our kids, from our own stupidity?  When my sons were born there were no car seat laws....but the hospitals wouldn't let you take your child home unless you had one.  It was hospital policy, just like riding out in a wheelchair, not the law.  But, by golly it was effective
 
If I remember right, the polio vaccine was mandatory.  And I may not be remembering correctly, but I do know we all went to the high school and lined up for our sugar cubes.  Was polio considered a medical crisis?  Don't know.  Is cervical cancer considered a medical crisis?  Well, yes and no because so many women don't get routine medical care and screenings, and the virus CAN be easily transmitted and therefore take on "epidemic" proportions, especially with the sexual attitudes these days.  And women die because they aren't getting to the doctor, and before that happens, how many others were infected with the virus that was passed along?  Some of this is the "it can't happen to me" attitude of youth, some is the inability to afford health care and some is just flat not even thinking they NEED to have these things done.  If the government wants to mandate vaccines and such, perhaps they should ALSO make health care affordable.
 
BUT, there are drugs that have been on the market for a good while and have FDA approval, along with all the studies and clinical trials that go with that.....Celebrex and Vioxx are two that come to mind.  I'm thinking it was the MMR that part of it wasn't as effective as once thought and both my sons had to be revaxed as older children.  I'm thinking it was against measles, but I could be wrong again.
 
They didn't have a vaccine against chicken pox when I was a child, nor when my sons were little.  We all did chicken pox...I was 19 when I caught them.  And, as a result, I suffer from periodic shingles outbreaks.  Oh, and now there is a vaccine for THAT, but, you have to be over 60 to have it, and gosh, if you have already HAD a shingles outbreak, they won't give it to you.  My poor MIL has been suffering for MONTHS with shingles that they can't seem to get rid of and the doc told her it's too late for the vaccine.
 
Guess I'm sitting pretty firmly on the fence on this one......part of me rebels against the government mandating anything to do with my body, part of me says it makes sense.[8|]

Well come on, of course it should be mandatory. The government has a right to protect people against communicable diseases, it does so all the time for the good of the whole society. To put it in a self-interested light, do you know how many of your tax & group insurance dollars will no longer be spent on colposcopies and pap smears? Once a woman is diagnosed with HPV she has to go back to the dr every 3-6mo. You don't have to sleep around to get HPV. You could be a virgin until you marry but if your husband has slept with one other person you can get HPV. Many of you probably have had it and never known it because HPV testing is not a routine part of pap smear examination. Sorry to get all fired up but about it but I think it's disgraceful that anyone wouldn't protect their daughter from the grief, stress, financial hardship and shame that HPV can bring... there is a sort of unspoken message being sent to girls who don't get this shot that if they have sex they deserve what they get.
 
I understand the point of the safety concerns, but I just think it's so interesting that no one sits around protesting Viagra or contesting the safety of prostate drugs... it seems to always be a women's health issue that meets with so much resistance.

We also have to remember that, whether we like it or not, girls are becoming sexually active at a much younger age than they used to ... 12 or 13 isn't all that unusual any more.
 
Joyce

Jones:  I agree that the shots are a good thing, but my reservations are that the drug is so new.  How many drugs have been pulled after being approved by the FDA because they pose a very serious health risk?  I don't know if I would be willing to put my child through that risk.  Personally, the shot is worthless for me.  Years down the line if the drug is still around when I have a girl then yes, I will have her get the shot.  Mind you, by the time I have a girl and she is old enough for the shot, it will have been over 10 years.  I would still feel the same way if they had a drug for boys/men to prevent prostate cancer or something else.

Jones: I agree that the shots are a good thing, but my reservations are that the drug is so new. How many drugs have been pulled after being approved by the FDA because they pose a very serious health risk?

 
That is how I feel. If the drug had been out for the public for longer, I would have my girls to the Dr. in a heartbeat. When the chicken pox vaccine came out, my kids had already had the chicken pox, but I talked to their dr about it and he was a little on the fence about it then. He was afraid girls would get the vaccine and it would wear off, then they would get chicken pox when they were pregnant. He said it was better to wait and if they haven't had the chicken pox by their late teens to get the shot. At that time you didn't need it to get into school.
I have friends that mothers took a drug in the 60's, I forget the name, I think it begins with a D. The drug was given to woman who had a higher risk of miscarriage. 2 of those friends were infertile and their Drs. told them it could have something to do with their mothers taking that drug.
I hope this vaccine is all it's cracked up to be, but until it is on the market for longer, I won't be giving it to my girls.

I believe a drug is different than a vaccine. I think a vaccine is a killed modified form of a virus ALREADY EXISTANT...drugs can be made from existing things or are completely man-made. IMO you cannot compare a vaccine to a drug. Maybe some of the medical folks we have on board can explain the difference but IMO comparing a drug to a vaccine doesn't seem quite right..

but I just think it's so interesting that no one sits around protesting Viagra or contesting the safety of prostate drugs

 until the government makes it mandatory for men to take viagra, i don't think it is relative. and i really, really hope it never is []

I believe a drug is different than a vaccine. I think a vaccine is a killed modified form of a virus ALREADY EXISTANT...drugs can be made from existing things or are completely man-made. IMO you cannot compare a vaccine to a drug. Maybe some of the medical folks we have on board can explain the difference but IMO comparing a drug to a vaccine doesn't seem quite right..

 
You are correct Gina   It is very, very different.  It is the same in one respect, everyone keeps saying it is so new and it really isn't.  It has been out for many, many years in the community, but the people getting it were on protocol being studied.  It's by no means new, the only thing new is that you can get it with out being involved in a research program.  You can't get the disease from the vaccine just like other simmilar vaccines.  The side effects are local irritation at the site of injection.  It acts as an antigen to stimulate your immune system to make antibodies so it recognizes and destroys the real thing if you get exposed.  Medications are compounds which are made to stimulate certain receptors/pathways in your body to alter all types of systems, they do not stimulate antibody formation.  Vaccines don't alter systems, they are just pieces of a bug (generic term) you want your body to learn how to recognize, they don't do anything themselves.   Side effects stem from immune/inflammatory responses at the time of the vaccine ( I know someone will say this so I will address it now, vaccines do NOT cause autoimmune disease or autism-this has been WELL studied ) I hope this makes sense, I know it's a little complicated sounding.  Instead of buying into the hysteria, I again encourage all of you to read some of the literature on pubmed.  It has great efficacy and a great safety profile.  It's called gardisl and it is a quadravalent vaccine (covers 4 strains, 16/18 which cause cervical dysplasia/cancer and 6/11 which cause genital warts).  As some of you have seen in the health section, I'm a huge critic and love to rip apart studies, but most of these are actually quite well done.  Get it if you qualify, I'm going to!!!  Even if you have dysplasia or warts already, you may benefit if you don't have all the strains in the vaccine!

Just saw a headline in the paper today that there are concerns with this vaccine, that there have been many problems in DC and VA (as well as other states) with adverse reactions ranging from headaches to seizures.
http://www.washtimes.com/business/20070202-100152-9747r.htm

edited to add link and info

headaches to seizures.

Again, not supported by evidence just like the autism scare with the measles vaccine.


 
EDIT: sorry it took a sec to get these links and there are more   I know this will sound horrible, but some people get seizures.  It would be nice to blame something, but usually it's idiopathic.  Just like autism, some people are born with it, it sucks but it's true.  Same with lupus, some people get it and it's not from breast implants. 
 
[linkhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16827602&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16827602&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum[/link]

[linkhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15246631&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15246631&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum[/link]

[linkhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17270106&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17270106&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum[/link]