http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16948093/

Texas governor orders STD vaccine for all girls
Decision comes after maker of cervical cancer shot doubled lobbying efforts

AUSTIN, Texas - Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

By employing an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents’ rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children.

Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.’s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.

Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.

“The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer,” Perry said.

Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.

Perry tied to Merck
Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company’s three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff. His current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.

The governor also received $6,000 from Merck’s political action committee during his re-election campaign.

The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor, as head of the executive branch, to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.

Legislative aides said they are looking for ways around the order for parents who oppose it.

“He’s circumventing the will of the people,” said Dawn Richardson, president of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, a citizens group that fought for the right to opt out of other vaccine requirements. “There are bills filed. There’s no emergency except in the boardrooms of Merck, where this is failing to gain the support that they had expected.”

Opt-out option for parents
Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit objecting to the vaccine on religious or philosophical reasons. Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say such requirements interfere with parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children.

The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.

The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil — at $360 for the three-shot regimen — were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects.

Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Susan Crosby, the group’s president, also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.

A top official from Merck’s vaccine division sits on Women in Government’s business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.

Merck's vaccine reps are making a mint this year.

The only thing keeping this from being picked up in every state is the absurd cost per dose of this vaccine.

http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vfc/cdc_vac_price_list.htm

Weird that this happened so quick, and lot more weird that it happened in Texas first.

It looked like it was almost as much as the meningitis vaccine. Considering that its new to the market and proprietary, I don't see why it would be as cheap as older, generic vaccines.

hmm... normally id say hes a douche, but if its in the interest of health, why not?


it seems that these are they same poeple who cant take the idea of sex ed.

great news, shocked that it happened in texas.

The meningitis vaccination is a new formulation that just came out in 2005. The older one you're thinking about is not used anymore.

By the way, the manufacturers of that vaccine, just like Merck, are unable to get states to purchase their wildly overpriced vaccine based solely on the merits of the vaccine and the needs of the population, so both companies employ unbelievably talented lobbyists.

i got vaccinated in Holland with that one in either 02 or 03. we had an outbreak in the area i lived in, one of my brothers best friends went into shock, and nearly died because this meningitis virus. they had to re-teach, and refesh his memory for over 2 years. He's never been the same. Also 2 people died in the town.

mind you the town only had a population of like 850 at the time. my mom's friend's 4 year old daughter died of this .

i don't think i've ever been that scared of my life.

I'll go ahead and agree with this decision.

85% of Texas Lawmakers disagrees with you. Conservatives cancer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070314/ap_ ... ne_texas_2

Great.

You know, it's one thing to try to block this because the vaccine is unproven, or because of Perry's obvious financial ties to the drug company that produces the vaccine, but to block it because it might encourage girls to have sex? Fucking mental defectives.

How very sad that parents would not want this great vaccine for their children.

even my MOTHER, aka Miss Catholic USA encouraged me to ask the doctor if I was too old for the vaccine yet.

The State of Texas allows you to submit a religious or philosophical exemption to vaccination. Why not just do that, rather than subvert the government's attempts to protect other children? Then you can go on pretending that your kids will never have sex or get raped, and the Health Department can go on fighting cervical cancer with the most cost-effective, proven method possible.

these were actually both very key issues in the debate about the vaccine. i was initially for this, but the more i learned about it the more i kind of decided it might not be the best idea to mandate it. for one thing, it's my understanding that the vaccine hasn't even been tested on the age group it was to be mandated for. for another, as you mentioned, Perry has pretty direct ties to Merck, which makes the whole thing stink.

several (liberal and conservative) people i know and respect with very deep knowledge of public policy around health issues were opposed to this, if for no other reason than the money would have been better spent on the many more pressing public health issues in this state.

Wait I thought it wasnt cool for the Gov't to tell chicks what to do with their bodies.

That's incorrect.

The quadrivalent HPV vaccine was evaluated for injection-site and systemic adverse events, new medical conditions reported during the follow-up period, and safety during pregnancy and lactation. Safety data on quadrivalent HPV vaccine are available from seven clinical trials and include 11,778 persons aged 9--26 years who received quadrivalent vaccine and 9,686 who received placebo. Detailed data were collected using vaccination report cards for 14 days following each injection of study vaccine on a subset of participants aged 9--23 years. The population with detailed safety data included 5,088 females who received quadrivalent HPV vaccine and 3,790 who received placebo (Tables 7--9) (111).

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtm ... 56e312a1_e

I'm thinking along the same lines as this. I am for this vaccine for anyone who wants it, such as if I had a daughter at that age I would want her to have it, but why is the school responsible to vaccinate? I know it is an STD which can be spread, but it isn't like TB or another disease that can be spread from just being in a room, so it doesn't seem like a dire health precaution to me.

I really think, if the school wants to help do this, that it should be a choice that the parents make for their student based on any reason for or against.

One can't help but notice the ties between Perry and Merck (if they are in fact true, I am not researched on this subject, so I will just trust the other posters for now) on this issue.

i should have said "tested extensively", but it's my understanding that much of Merck's testing of this vaccine has been called into question, because of the types of placebos they used and other issues. a lot of people seem to feel it was fast tracked by the FDA. i also don't know exactly how the age groups cited break down, which is obviously very important. i believe i read somewhere that Merck wouldn't make that breakdown available.

This is pretty much where I stand on this. The evidence on the Perry/Merck connection is pretty strong, if I remmeber correctly, and I think it's highlighted earlier in this thread.