Can these people get any crazier?

Deaths from cervical cancer could jump fourfold to a million a year by 2050, mainly in developing countries. This could be prevented by soon-to-be-approved vaccines against the virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer - but there are signs that opposition to the vaccines might lead to many preventable deaths.

The trouble is that the human papilloma virus (HPV) is sexually transmitted. So to prevent infection, girls will have to be vaccinated before they become sexually active, which could be a problem in many countries.

In the US, for instance, religious groups are gearing up to oppose vaccination, despite a survey showing 80 per cent of parents favour vaccinating their daughters. "Abstinence is the best way to prevent HPV," says Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council, a leading Christian lobby group that has made much of the fact that, because it can spread by skin contact, condoms are not as effective against HPV as they are against other viruses such as HIV.

"Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a licence to engage in premarital sex," Maher claims, though it is arguable how many young women have even heard of the virus.

That's right. If we start vaccinating people against HPV (which studies show has infected "half of all sexually active women between 18 and 22 in the US"), it's a Bad Thing because it might encourage them to have sex outside of marriage. Rather than risk that, we'll just condemn some of them to death by cervical cancer. It's okay, because they're going to be writhing in Hell for all eternity for their fornication, anyway. Unless they were virgins at marriage and got it from their promiscuous husbands. In which case they'll be gathered up into Jesus' bosom as virtuous martyrs after they die.

Crikey.

(Via Dispatches)

Filed under :: ZT & PC
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Quoth ***Dave ...

Remarkably enough, a key FDA advisory panel is recommending routine vaccinations with this drug for young kids. And the expected outcry from the Religious Right has, so far, been missing.

Taking up a sensitive issue among religious conservatives, an influential government advisory panel Thursday recommended that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also said the shots can be started for girls as young as 9, at the discretion of their doctors.

The committee's recommendations usually are accepted by federal health officials, and influence insurance coverage for vaccinations.

[...] The committee's vote was unanimous, with two of the 15 members abstaining because of they have worked on Merck-funded studies.

The committee also voted to add the HPV vaccine to the coverage list for the federal Vaccines for Children program, which pays for immunizations for the poor. That could mean $50 million to $100 million in additional spending in the first year, government officials said.

Some health officials had girded themselves for arguments from religious conservatives and others that vaccinating youngsters against the sexually transmitted virus might make them more likely to have sex. But the controversy never materialized in the panel's public meetings.

The conservative groups talked with mostly disagreed with suggestions some have made that it be a required vaccination for kids to attend school. That's certainly a consideration, open to some discussion, though the rhetoric seems overblown.

"By giving its highest level of recommendation, the panel has placed strong pressure on state governments to make HPV vaccinations mandatory," Linda Klepacki, a Focus on the Family analyst for sexual health, said in a statement.

"If that happens, state officials, not parents, would become the primary sexual-health decision makers for America's children. That's the way things are done in dictatorships, not democracies."

Well, there's always home schooling. I hear that's a popular option in some quarters ...

(So, is requiring mumps and measle vaccinations an establishment of the state becoming the primary physical health decision maker for America's children? Just wondering.)

Quoth Boulder Dude ...

Ummm....

I guess Ms. Klepacki is unaware that all kids need a ton of vaccinations and things like tetinus shots to be in Public School too. But I guess that is good dictatorship and not bad dictatorship.