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The Facts Behind the HPV Vaccine Debate and Rick Perry’s Merck Ties
I’m going to drop some knowledge on lady-part business today, followed up with some commentary on the HPV vaccine mandate debate going on among the GOP primary contenders. I’m also going to drop my CPhT credentials here, since I’m talking about health care and am technically a health care professional.
I received the Gardasil vaccinations against the Human Papilloma Virus last year. It’s a total of three shots over 6 months. Under Merck’s prescription assistance plan at Planned Parenthood, the vaccines cost $31 each/$93 total. (Without insurance, they’re pretty pricey, between $100-180 depending on your pharmacy and whether your MD prescribes the vial or the pre-prepared syringe.)
I might already have HPV, since I was active for several years with more experienced partners before getting vaccinated. HPV is estimated to be the most common of all STIs. Studies of prevalence vary, but they generally agree that at least 30% of all women will have at least one form of HPV by mid-adulthood. Condoms may help, but will not fully prevent the transmission of HPV.
HPV is normally detected when a routine pap smears shows cervical abnormalities. The pap smear isn’t the official HPV test; there’s also a DNA test performed for high-risk women or those whose paps come back abnormal. There are no FDA-approved HPV tests for men.
Most infected men and women will live out their happy lives completely unaware, but certain high-risk strains can cause genital warts and more disconcerting, cervical cancer.
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At the Tea Party Debate, Michele Bachmann spun a second-hand story of HPV vaccine causing mental retardation, which several fact check sites and doctors everywhere debunked immediately.
The point of her story, of course, was to draw ire to Rick Perry’s unpopular HPV vaccination mandate for girls entering middle-school. On February 2, 2007, Texas became the first state to enact a mandate-by executive order from the governor that all females entering the sixth grade receive the vaccine, with a parental opt-out option. The state legislature disagreed, overturned the mandate with H.B. 1098, and at that point, Perry withheld his veto.
Rick Perry’s rebuttal during Tea Party debate included the statement that he only received a $5,000 donation from HPV vaccine maker Merck. But that figure only refers to funds donated by Merck’s political action committee during Perry’s re-election campaign. The Washington Post finds that Perry’s campaigns have received almost $30,000 from Merck since 2000 and the drug maker has given $380,000 to the Republican Governors Association (RGA) since 2006—which Perry chaired twice and has contributed around $4 million to his campaigns. One of Merck’s top three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff.
Toomey’s mother-in-law, the former Texas state Rep. Dianne White Delisi (R), was a state director for Women in Government, another organization heavily funded by Merck.
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I fainted for a few seconds during my first shot. I had been told to eat before coming in to prevent this side-effect, and I did eat a McMuffin meal but had finished it only a few minutes before I arrived at the clinic. That was obviously not enough time to get my blood sugar levels up.
Passing out during a shot is an example of a vasovagal response, an automatic nervous system response to needles going into your skin. Compared to other intramuscular injections, Gardasil has an increased risk of this fainting, also called syncope. For the next two shots, I ate at least an hour before going in and the shots went peachy. No light-headedness at all.
In terms of pain, this shot was worse than the flu shot, but not nearly as bad as the meningococcal vaccine I had to get for college in New York. I would recommend it to all sexually active ladies, because I’m sure paying $93 is nothing compared to cervical cancer.
Information Is Beautiful finds that the HPV vaccines are extremely safe. (Nice infographics too.)
Depressing Day for the Democrats in Political News
^Anthony Weiner’s Speech Presented by Guilty Looking Dachshunds.
Anthony Weiner’s vacated seat is lost to the GOP. How did the Democratically heavy 9th district manage to lose to the Republicans?
Dem. contender David Weprin had a series of gaffes over the summer, fucking up knowledge of the national debt. He also failed to pander to the Hassidic Jewish population, which are a significant voter demographic in the Brooklyn section of the 9th. His opponent, Bob Turner, was supported by Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat and an orthodox Jew, and local rabbis.
Nate Silver predicts that the 2012 elections will end up looking a lot like 2010:
Democrats might not lose many more seats in the House if that were the case, since most of their vulnerable targets have already been picked off, but it would limit their potential for any gains. And it could produce dire results for the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, where they have twice as many seats up for re-election.
Newsflash: Young people still suck at knowing what district they’re in and who their Congressperson is. In case you missed it:
In Ohio, volunteers are rallying against House Bill 194, which would limit the window to send in absentee ballots, among other voter-friendly practices. In this op-ed by Cincinnati’s Howard Wilkinson, whose Enquirer byline is “don’t trust anyone else,” he notes that “it won’t be in effect for the November 2012 presidential election either, because that is the day when Ohioans will go to the polls not only to choose a president but to vote up-or-down on House Bill 194.”
By his own logic, it won’t help the 2012 election. Yet the rest of his article is talking about why Democrats are flipping out right now. It’s a sad day for politics, when people sincerely believe that everything that hurts the other party and democratic process is good for America.
Oh wait, that’s every day now.
Liveblogging the CNN Tea Party Republican Primary Debate
This is a spontaneous endeavor, so bear with me. Popping my liveblogging cherry!
8:03 I haven’t watched many debate openings, but is that how networks normally present them? “Rick Santorum – The Fighter?” Isn’t “the guy who needs to quit now or will go broke” a more appropriate epithet? I love how they later referred to Herman Cain as the “pizza guy.” Is this a debate or a reality TV Show? I guess both.
8:10 Wolf Blitzer indeed has a glorious beard.
8:13 Nice of you to talk to Michelle Bachmann first, unlike MSNBC’s snubbing of her last time. Her answer was still terrible though.
8:18 “We’re having a conversation, right now.” Mitt Romney to Rick Perry. The moderators are letting some bickering go on. The crowd loves it. The “ooh ooh ooh ohh!” coming from the crowd is deserving of some fist-pumping.
8:30 I wasn’t really paying attention to Mitt Romney’s talk about growing the private sector, because I was busy admiring at his gorgeous salt and peppered coiffure.
8:39 “[The stimulus] created zero jobs.” Rick Perry blatantly lies.
[The Indecision Live-blog says, “Does Ron Paul for serious think that we’d ever elect a person who wears a plaid tie?”]
[Andrew Sullivan says Rick Perry has a “smug teflon smirk that this crowd is lapping up… As he strutted onto the stage he looked like a rooster in an Italian suit.” Accurate analysis.]
8:49 Finally a Ronald Reagan reference. Thanks Newt!
8:58 Michelle Bachman talking about leashes. Fiscal… Discipline!
9:07 If this was a slow talking contest, Rick Perry would win. He’s so ashamed of his Gardasil stint.
9:09 Still, I get the impression Rick Perry is really afraid of dying of cervical cancer.
9:20 Ron Paul wants to legalize “alternative” medicine. That’s the cure for rising health care costs. Leeches for everyone!
9:25 “I’m Wolf Blitzer, now back to the… psych! Back to commercials.” What was the point of that? Thanks for letting me know your name, Wolf Blitzer.
9:31 Ooh, Rick Perry got his first boos. I’m glad the mods and other candidates are calling out RP on his hypocrisy.
9:38 My immigration attorney boyfriend got Jon Huntsman’s H1-B reference. He’s the only one.
9:46 What would you bring the White House if you moved in? A Bible. A Bible. Another Bible. An army of unvaccinated foster children. And not Mexicans.
9:50 There’s nothing I want more than a creepy bust of Winston Church in my house.
That’s a wrap! All that happened tonight is that we’re reminded that Michelle Bachmann is against the violation of little girls, Rick Perry regrets violating little girls, and Tea Partiers will boo at anything that doesn’t involve wrapping themselves in the copies of the Constitution to ward off the terrorists (and the Mexicans).
Click here to read to my annotated transcript of the Sept. 7 Politico-sponsored bitch-fest.
Annotated Transcript from the Sept. 7 GOP Politico Primary Debate
Mitt Romney holding an invisible baby.
Newt Gingrich: “I’m a Democrat tonight!”
Rick Perry: “Fuck Mitt Romney. (And the Mexicans. Execute them all.)”
Mitt Romney: “Don’t listen to Rick Perry. Massachusetts is special.”
Rick Santorum: “I’m sorry. My mouth is too full of fecal matter to make a difference.”
Ron Paul: “The free market will always give it to me better than Rick Santorum.”
Herman Cain: “I would have good talking points, if only the audience didn’t want to lynch me.”
Jon Huntsman: “I’m above these partisan politics. Not.”
Michelle Bachmann: “Stop stealing my thunder!”
Everybody: “Barack Obama is a failure and socialist! Lower taxes! I will suck the embalmed cock of Ronald Reagan!”
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You’re welcome.
For the real debate, watch it on Politico or read the full transcript from NYT.
Environmentalists are disappointed in Barack Obama
Al Gore is disappointed in Barack Obama
Al Gore posted a short blog post today titled “Confronting Disappointment” concerning the recent proposed EPA air standards that the The President recently shot down:
Instead of relying on science, President Obama appears to have bowed to pressure from polluters who did not want to bear the cost of implementing new restrictions on their harmful pollution—even though economists have shown that the US economy would benefit from the job creating investments associated with implementing the new technology.
Oh Obama, I feel like every time you take a step forward with one of your liberal support groups, you walk away from another one. You have two hands; use them to get both jobs done. Please your base.
I still haven’t gotten my closed Guantanamo Bay or my free bumper sticker. Is the bumper sticker part really that hard? Or is it going to take another 4 years like the repeal of DADT?
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SlutWalk NYC is pissing me off with its DSK protesting
Slutwalk Toronto via Wikipedia.
I though the concept of Slutwalk was cool when I first heard about it. Taking back derogatory terms for sexual liberalization? Awesome! Sign me up for SlutWalk NYC for October 1. I also followed them on Tumblr to remind myself of the date and get updates of any changes.
But I was not happy to receive an invite to the Dominuque Strauss-Kahn Protest, which seemingly presumes his guilt in the sexual assault case and labels the accuser as “the victim.” Slutwalk’s characterization that DSK was treated lightly by the press this whole time is wrong. Their claim that DSK paid people off for character assassination of the victim is unfounded. They cited no evidence in that claim, presented no rebuttals to all the contradicting evidence, and are walking on a dangerous presumption of guilt that is against the spirit of our entire legal system.
Reuters’ Anya Schiffrin makes excellent points in her blog about other organizations presenting their visceral emotional reactions rather than talking about the facts:
By creating this fringe protest, SlutWalk NYC is undermining both its credibility and primary objectives. A single court case with dubious evidence is hardly a paradigm of “rape culture” worthy of a protest.
I hope SlutWalk’s home-based Toronto organization doesn’t associate itself with its New York City satellite organization’s poor choice in politics.
[Edit: I wrote a related post, On Feminism and Gender Egalitarianism, partially as a response to comments below. And another post commenting upon a race-issues blog which criticized a sign at Slutwalk NYC.]