Wat.
So vaccines are unnecessary because the thing they’re for only kills a small number of people (but they’re a small number so they don’t matter!) and subjects a larger number of people to surgery (which oh hey is a bit unpleasant to go through and is pretty labor intensive) for something that could be prevented.
And you know, the tests to detect cervical cancer can easily be really triggering (I WONDER WHY) so maybe some people would like to avoid them as much as possible.
And OBVIOUSLY everyone in the first world has access to healthcare and is wealthy and shit.
OH WAIT. We are talking about the US here.
WTF, eugh.
Soooo given that we have a public funded healthcare system in the UK and I’ve never had a smear test I didn’t actually think of these things.
But I don’t think the point of the post was that the vaccine is necessarily unnecessary in first world countries just that they’re perhaps being a bit hypocritical by exaggerating the risk of HPV while simultaneously accusing Bachmann of exaggerating the risk of the vaccine (which, of course, she is.).
Although I could be completely wrong and I will shut up now.
Framing HPV as a horrifying, deadly disease that leads (inevitably!) to (deadly!) cancer is massively oversimplifying. As is framing Gardasil as a wonderful, miraculous, life-preserving, cancer-preventing jab. Gardasil was actually banned in India for a while for its false advertising campaigns. Merck was heavily promoting the idea that Gardasil guaranteed protection from cervical cancer, ALL cervical cancer - in countries where direct promotion of prescription drugs to the consumer is permitted (such as the United States), there was this absolutely nauseating promotion going on. Sweet apple-cheeked teenaged girls, high school cheerleaders wearing the purple of the drug’s packaging, were talking about how they’d be “one more person protected from dying of cancer.” The word “cervical” wasn’t uttered. Meanwhile, the miniscule print at the bottom of the television screen or magazine advert pointed out that Gardasil only protected against the four most common cancer-causing strains of HPV, and that it did not provide absolute protection from cervical cancer.
Most vaccines are pretty cheap to make, and pretty cheap to sell, regardless of whether the price is covered by the consumer or by a health plan of some sort or other. Not Gardasil. Gardasil costs more than $100 a jab.
Gardasil was rammed past the FDA before the testing had even been completed. Hate to burst your bubble, but adverse side effects are common, more than for other vaccines. The most common is temporary vertigo. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you’ve ever had vestibular problems, you’ll know that vertigo can be quite awful to experience. Seizures are also not unheard of.
The FDA got much of its power stripped away in the Reagan era, and during his slash-and-burn deregulation campaign, the agency also got infiltrated with new employees who had connections to the very drug companies, agribusiness factories, etc that the FDA had formerly been created to hold in check. The organization is a shell of what it once was. The people who work there are massively overburdened - and those are the honest ones who don’t happen to have conflicts of interest or briberies going on. So sometimes things get by.
Two companies in particular, Wyeth-Ayerst (recently bought by Pfizer) and Merck, are notorious for problems - inadequate research before market release, quality control problems in their factories. Gardasil is made by Merck. Therefore, the relatively high rate of adverse side effects from this particular vaccine, as opposed to other vaccines, should come as no surprise.
All drugs, vaccines, and medical treatments in general are undertaken with a risk vs benefit consideration in mind, or at least, they should be. (Sometimes I have to wonder.) In the case of Gardasil, the issue is one of “does the slight but real chance of my some day developing cervical cancer in the wake of an HPV infection outweigh the slight but rather higher risk of my developing vestibular problems, fainting spells, and/or seizures shortly after being vaccinated against strains of HPV?” It’s a choice only the patient can make, but it better be an informed one.
And it better be a matter of choice. When the vaccine first came out, Texas actually made it mandatory for all teenaged girls. Rick Perry had just been elected governor. He has close personal ties to Merck, did you know that? Some very generous campaign contributions going on, there. But no, I’m sure his mandate was purely humanitarian, made from his deep concern for the lives of women and his belief that no woman should ever be punished with an STD and cervical cancer for her decision to be sexually active. Because he’s truly supportive of women and reproductive freedom. Right? You betcha.
And I’m the Easter Bunny.
As to the idea that I’m “anti vaccine” because I’m American - I am not anti vaccine. I think it’s a very good idea to protect myself and my family against polio, measles, diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, meningitis, hepatitis - serious, deadly diseases, in other words. I personally do not feel that in our case, the benefits of Gardasil outweigh the risks. If my daughters choose otherwise when they are adolescent, that’s their choice. I’m not going to stand in their way. I just won’t be eagerly pushing it on them. And my leeriness of Gardasil has nothing to do with an “American” horror of vaccines. You’re British, aren’t you? You’re the ones who gave us Andrew Wakefield. So spare me.
Uhm, I don’t think Emily is British, no.
Though I may be wrong.
Unless that was addressed at me
But I’m not sure exactly what I said.
(Source: motherjones)
