after the wonderful governor of texas made an executive order last week. the order requires all 11 - 12 year-old girls to get the hpv vaccine, gardasil, in order to attend public school. this is wrong on sooooooo many levels.
first of all, hpv is a sexually transmitted disease. sexually transmitted. that means genital to genital contact. is this really necessary for school? it's not as if a girl infected with hpv (hopefully there aren't that many young girls infected with it in the first place) touches a doorknob without washing her hands can cause another girl to get cervical cancer! why is this being required for school?! some of these girls haven't even had their first period yet and we're going to make them get a vaccine which only protects against an std? come on!!
newsflash about hpv: guys can be infected with it, too. sure, it may not turn into cervical cancer for guys, but it can cause cancer of the anus and the penis. why not require 11 - 12 year-old boys to get the vaccine, too? why is it only girls that are being required? the girls have to be having sex with somebody in order to get this disease.
one thing that pisses me off: check out the gardasil official website. at the top it reads "the only cervical cancer vaccine". this is a totally false claim!!! it does not prevent cervical cancer!! it protects against the human papillomavirus, not cervical cancer!!!!! how can they legally say that? isn't that false advertising? shouldn't it be come down upon even harder than other products since it is making a claim about our health? in their own commercial, they say the disclaimers "it may not protect everyone, and it may not prevent all cases of cervical cancer", then they immediately call it the first cervical cancer vaccine, after they just said it was anything but! arrgghhh!!!!
my husband asked me why i am so against it. why i'm not behind this. i'm not anti-vaccine, but i am anti-mandatory for school cause. as i said, it's not like mumps or measles, or even the flu, which can be contracted just by touching the same doorknob, or being in the same vicinity as an infected person. transmission requires naked people having genital to genital contact. why is this mandatory for school? it's not that communicable.
here's some facts i've learned about hpv. there are 30 strains that are transmitted sexually. of those strains, only about 10 are considered "high-risk", meaning they can lead to abnormal pap results, and in rare cases, may cause cancer of the cervix, vagina, vulva, anus or penis. (note: it said in rare cases it goes on to cancer). while most cases of cervical cancer are caused by hpv, not all cases are. those causes are currently unknown. regarding gardasil, the vaccine only protects against 4 strains of high-risk hpv. just 4. out of 10. that's not even half. how can they call it a cancer vaccine when, first of all, not all cancer is caused by hpv, and second, when it only protects against 4 out of 10 strains known to cause cervical cancer?
again, why is no attention being brought to the effects of hpv on boys? how many of you men out there would want cancer in your penis? how about your anus? my guess it none of you would want that. there may be a few exceptions, but i'm guessing most of you wouldn't want that. so why aren't we making this mandatory for our little boys? if it's only tested in women, why haven't they tested it in men? that zelnorm medicine was first only approved for women, and is now approved for both men and women, why can't they do that with this?
ok, so yes, most cases of cervical cancer are caused by hpv. but most strains of hpv do not cause cancer. the only true way to prevent hpv is not a vaccine, but abstinence. some parents were up in arms over this because they said it promoted sex. that's not why i'm upset. let's face it, no matter what religion kids are raised or what sex education (or lack of) they receive from parents, schools or doctors, if a kid decides they want to have sex, they are gonna have sex. there are kids who decide not to have sex until they are married. i am one of those kids. i kept the promise i made to myself, my family, and my God. i don't need to worry about hpv. some of these girls don't need to worry about hpv, because some of them are going to make commitments to save themselves for marriage. "but they could change their mind later." yes, they could, but isn't that their own decision? i personally don't think kids should be having sex. i'm not saying sex is bad, because it's not, it was designed before there was any sin, designed by God. but i know that kids will do what they want to do. just as sex is their own decision, shouldn't a vaccine against an std also be their own decision? or at least their parents' decision?
if you want to get the hpv vaccine, go for it, more power to ya. but don't take that decision away from individuals. that's exactly what this executive order does. it takes away parental and personal rights. you should have the right to make your own decisions about your health or your children's health. if you can opt out of this anyway, which supposedly you can for a number of reasons, why make it mandatory? texas legislators, please step in and overturn this executive order. it's taking away our rights and is totally unnecessary.
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