Firetxmi
01-01-2006, 04:22 PM
Winston-Salem Journal
November 29, 2005
Imagine that a drug company developed a vaccine for gonorrhea, AIDS or a form of cancer. That would certainly be a cause for celebration.
Well, something like that has happened, but because of this country's culture wars, the public response is more likely to be a knockdown, dragged-out political battle.
Merck Research Laboratories and Glaxo Smith Kline have developed a vaccine for four strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV. That virus is essential to a woman's development of cervical cancer and genital warts. The vaccine is 100-percent effective against these four strains, and that could mean the elimination of 70 percent of the cervical-cancer cases, and 90 percent of the genital-warts cases, that could be expected in the future.
The potential savings in human life and misery are enormous. Each year, a half million women worldwide develop cervical cancer and more than half of them die, including 3,700 in the United States. While several factors are necessary for cervical cancer to develop, HPV is essential.
Merck, which will distribute the vaccine under the name Gardasil in the United States, wants all girls vaccinated at age 12. Merck will ask states to add the vaccination to the mandatory list for school attendance. Since North Carolina is home to Merck facilities, it is likely that the company will get a good hearing in the General Assembly.
Here's how this good news becomes a culture war issue. Several conservative religious groups have expressed reservations about vaccinating children at that age. They say that society should be stressing abstinence as the best defense against ******ly transmitted diseases, such as HPV, and that a general vaccination of all children would amount to an endorsement of premarital ***.
Link: http://www.wcn.org/interior.cfm?featureid=7&id=189
The reason I posted this is because it was brought up in an editorial in the NY Times. I couldn't believe it. How can anyone honestly defend this? I just don't understand.
November 29, 2005
Imagine that a drug company developed a vaccine for gonorrhea, AIDS or a form of cancer. That would certainly be a cause for celebration.
Well, something like that has happened, but because of this country's culture wars, the public response is more likely to be a knockdown, dragged-out political battle.
Merck Research Laboratories and Glaxo Smith Kline have developed a vaccine for four strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV. That virus is essential to a woman's development of cervical cancer and genital warts. The vaccine is 100-percent effective against these four strains, and that could mean the elimination of 70 percent of the cervical-cancer cases, and 90 percent of the genital-warts cases, that could be expected in the future.
The potential savings in human life and misery are enormous. Each year, a half million women worldwide develop cervical cancer and more than half of them die, including 3,700 in the United States. While several factors are necessary for cervical cancer to develop, HPV is essential.
Merck, which will distribute the vaccine under the name Gardasil in the United States, wants all girls vaccinated at age 12. Merck will ask states to add the vaccination to the mandatory list for school attendance. Since North Carolina is home to Merck facilities, it is likely that the company will get a good hearing in the General Assembly.
Here's how this good news becomes a culture war issue. Several conservative religious groups have expressed reservations about vaccinating children at that age. They say that society should be stressing abstinence as the best defense against ******ly transmitted diseases, such as HPV, and that a general vaccination of all children would amount to an endorsement of premarital ***.
Link: http://www.wcn.org/interior.cfm?featureid=7&id=189
The reason I posted this is because it was brought up in an editorial in the NY Times. I couldn't believe it. How can anyone honestly defend this? I just don't understand.