Tx Governor Orders All Girls To Get Std/cancer Vaccine

[Tyger]

What do y'all think of this???

STD/cancer vaccine news brief

[MysticLady]

I was just reading that on another forum. I think its a good idea to get it but I feel that 6th grade is a bit too young maybe 8th grade would be better.

Liesl

[learningeveryday]

I think it is an excellent idea, but I want to know if the government is going to help defray the cost of the vaccine--about $900.

[learningeveryday]

My girls were not thinking about sex in the sixth grade, either. However, I know of several girls of that age who have been raped. I believe that this vaccine would be something of a relief to both those girls and their parents, knowing that these victims of a vicious crime would not be victimized a second time if they got cancer.

[Mikayla1]

I have issues and concerns with this. While if I were to have a little girl, I would want ONLY the best for her - including all the vaccines that protect her from everything from the chicken pox to cancer. If there was a vaccine for every disease in the world, and the vaccine was safe, my child would have it.

Now, that is MY CHOICE, not a mandated or forced choice. In the state in which I live, a parent can decide what shots they do and do not want their child to have - which the exception of some of the major "school born" illnesses. I give my child ALL shots - including the flu mist - because it protects HIM and me as well.

WHen a government mandates something like this is makes many parents feel helpless and unprepared. It also begs the question of personal freedom, trust and other issues. I think that giving a child this vaccine is a wonderful CHOICE - and that even if you think your child will not be sexually active in the 6th grade you should just protect them anyway. Do you really think your child would have sex just because they have this vaccine? I doubt it, not if you are a good parent and talk to your child about being prepared and ready for sex. The fact is, 99% of most children will NOT ask or tell their parents when they become sexually active - so why not err on the side of caution here?

I would definitely give my girl this vaccine (if I had one) because I want to protect my child from all the evils in the world that I can - and there will be way too many that I can't protect her from so why would I deny her this?

Mikayla

[Tyger]

Thanks so far, for all your input!

Well, I do live in Texas, AND have a little girl, and I gotta say that I have mixed views as well.

I think the media itself is doing this vaccine an injustice to say it's an "STD SHOT", because it's really not the focus of the vaccine. The focus SHOULD be on the fact that it helps prevent a common type of cervical cancer, which happens to be caused by HPV. Yes, that IS an STD, but they're not focusing on the right aspect of this shot. You say the term STD, and people get a negative feeling about it. My husband, being the true Texan that he is, when he first heard about it, said "AWWWW Hell Nawww!! Not my daughter! Sex? 6th grade? Uh-uhhhhhh". Which, IMO is probably the typical reaction. Most kids aren't thinking of sex by 6th grade. But the point of this shot is that the child has to NOT BE SEXUALLY ACTIVE (hence not having the CHANCE of having HPV, and not knowing about it).

Now, where I think goverment does try and step in at times that they shouldn't, I truly can't see why some people are getting SOOO offended by "this" shot, since, if you think about it, you have to have your children vaccinated against a lot of viruses before the age of 5 anyway. What makes this one much different?

In answer to some questions. Yes, the government would help pay or fully pay for the shot if you couldn't afford to get it on your own. I would think they woud have too anyway, especially if it's mandated.

Like Mikayla, if the shot is proved safe and effective, I want my daughter to be protected against all the bad things out there that may hurt her, or make her sick. Plus the fact that my mother had uterine cancer, my half-sister had cervical cancer, I am on my guard against cancer in me, I know with cancer in our family, she has a higher risk of it.

IF this vaccine mandate is influenced by TX's governor's affliliation with the drug's maker, Merk (I think that's how it's spelled), and the contributions that Merk made to the governor when he was running, then I don't think that this is a good idea at all.

[whiskeywoman]

I have been catching up on my reading, so I am sorry if my response is late.

As a mom of 4 girls, ranging in ages from 8 to 10 months, I have mixed feelings on this whole shot thing.

First of all, Gardasil is NOT a cancer preventitive as they are spouting it to be, it is a vaccine against HPV, which has been directly linked to being a contributor to cervical/uterine cancer.

There is more than one way to get cervical/uterine cancer, heredity is a factor, as are things like birth control, if you use the diaphram or the cervical cap, the constant irratation can lead to cancer.

This whole shot thing is a major lawsuit waiting to happen, I can see it now, all these young women and girls being forced to have this vaccine will go about their lives thinking they had the vaccine, therefore, they have no worries about ever getting uterine cancer in any form.

Someday, someone will wind up having uterine cancer, and the whole "help prevent uterine cancer" spin campaign will be used against them in a court of law, and the drug company will sit up there on the stand in their fancy fluffy suit and their shiney gold watch and say" the gardasil was a vaccine for HPV, not cancer."

They need to advertise what is is, a vaccine against an all too common virus.

Now, as for mandating the shots......

I REFUSE to have some ten gallon hat, tobacco spitting, dust kicking,cowboy boot wearing overstuffed suit tell me what my daughters are going to get!!

There is such a thing as freedom of choice.

I have family who refuse to give their children regular reccomended vaccines, like polio, hep B etc.

Because they believe it leads to autism.

We wont get into that debate right now, but anyways, the point is, even though my kids are all up to date on their shots, and I am a firm believer in vaccines... I am going to hold off on a yea or nay decision on the whole gardasil thing for my girls until I have had a chance to do some research on it.

Personally, I dont want to jump into something I am not fully prepared for, including all types of ramifications from it.

As for the govenor making it mandatory?

It is pretty stupid if you ask me, he would have had a much better reception if he offered the low cost/low income/financially challanged families assitance with paying for it, and simply offering the "suggested" timeline as for when a good time for the shot is.

I mean, if the governor here ordered it, I will kick and scream and dig my heels in for everything im worth, why should I have to go to court to keep my veiws on parenting my own?

I say offer the parents any and all information they request including information to the trials and the FDA's final say so on the product, allow them the choice if they want to allow their daughter to vaccine.

Parenting is about choices, we all do things differantly, but we all want the same outcome, happy, healthy children, who are well adjusted, smart and will have common sense as to what their futures hold.

Let the parents be parents not just chauffers and cooks.

[Jossie1013]

Here's my take. The Governor of Texas is a politician and therefore it seems unlikely to me that he took this step (right or wrong) without immense amounts of research (by his team of course.) It does seem a little fast to me - and I would like to see a little more time and research given before it's mandated. However, it does seem to me that this is a good thing. No it doesn't wipe out cancer - but people who have or had cervical cancer due to HPV probably wish they'd had access to it.

I am a female - a daughter, who has 4 sisters, 7 neices and 1 great neice. And if I had a child my child would have this. First of all, because I can't live in fear that all of the government mandated vaccines cause autism or some other disability. At some point there has to be some faith. (at least for me.) And finally because ANYTHING that might possibly keep my child safe from cancer is a big fat plus to me. However, I see the wisdom of waiting a year or so as well whiskeywoman.

I am, as ever, fascinated by the love/hate relationship we Americans have with our voted representatives. And the quintessential American idea of "YOU CANT TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" when the fact of the matter is, they can tell us, within set bounds, what to do, and we put them in the position of doing so in the first place. It is our responsibility as adults and parents to leap the distance from "cancer stopping drug" to "prevents one possible cause of cervical cancer". There is no such thing as a magic bullet (medically speaking of course, we know there are magic bullets in the TT world!) and the children(and their parents) need to be made to understand that. First and foremost it is the job of parents to prepare their children for the world, including explaining about HPV, cervical cancer, and STDs. Of course the second line of defense would be teachers, coaches, and counselors, and finally the government. I think if knowledge and protection of our children is the goal - then the manditoriness of the mandatory vaccine becomes much less important.

Jossie

[clewing]

We were just discussing this in my Economics class yesterday. My professor is a firm believer that government gets too involved in peoples' lives. Some points that were made in class were made here in the forum, too.

First and foremost, this should be a choice of the parent, not mandated by the government. While I supported giving my children polio vaccines, and even measles, I sometimes have wondered about the viruses that cause less problems for children (mumps, rubella and now chicken pox). I've even read articles that these type of viruses can even make the immune system stronger, but I don't believe that has been proven. I don't even want to get into the hep B vaccine, as my husband was forced to take that in the military (he was an MP so considered a first responder and they had to have it) and he developed severe adverse reactions to the vaccine--his body thinks he has hepatitis and it has been linked to the vaccine. Now we have another vaccine that has not been totally proven, in my opinion.

But what I really don't like is that fact that the drug company is lobbying for this. They are the ones trying to take our freedom of choice away.