HPV vaccine-related bill moves in Senate but it’s going nowhere
by Dara Kam | February 22nd, 2012Linking schools with the HPV vaccine for young girls can be dangerous for politicians, as Texas Gov. Rick Perry learned when he was on the national stage defending his state’s forced requirement of the shot to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
But the controversial vaccine is included in a measure unanimously approved by a Senate panel Wednesday afternoon that would simply require schools to give out information about the vaccines to all 6th-graders. The measure (SB 1116) would also require the state health department to add the human papillomavirus to the list of communicable diseases for which vaccines are recommended.
Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, asked a series of pointed questions to establish that the bill would not force vaccines on anyone.
“It does not,” bill sponsor Thad Altman, R-Melbourne, said.
Gaetz then asked if parents would be required to opt out of getting the vaccination or be required for girls to enroll in school.
“Absolutely not. It’s just information for the parent,” Altman said.
Perhaps another reason for the unanimous support from the seven-member panel on which a single Democrat sits is because the bill has no chance of passing in the House.
“Hope springs eternal,” Altman said, acknowledging that the House bill has yet to get a single hearing with just two weeks left before the legislative session ends.
The HPV vaccine drew fire in Florida in 2007 when some lawmakers attempted to require it for 11 and 12-year-old girls to enroll in school, part of a nationwide rush to embrace the vaccine fueled by lobbying by Merck, the manufacturer of the HPV vaccine “Gardasil.”
That same year, 20 other states considered similar legislation, but only Virginia and the District of Columbia passed mandates adding the drug to the list of vaccines required for children to attend school. Perry issued the requirement through an executive order.
have such requirements on the books.
The vaccine prevents women from getting cervical cancer and genital warts caused by certain types of the human papilloma virus, but is only effective if taken before a girl or woman is exposed to the virus.
HPV is transmitted through genital contact and affects more than half of the population of sexually active men and women at some point, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann drew attention to the vaccination again during the GOP presidential candidate debates when she said linked the vaccine to mental retardation. The American Academy of Pediatrics fired back that there is no scientific validity to the statement.
Tags: Florida House, Florida Senate, HPV, Merck
February 22nd, 2012 at 7:17 pm
see “the greater good”, follow the money honey
February 22nd, 2012 at 7:50 pm
There are something like 350 “HPV” viruses. The vaccine has been aimed at 2 of them, and no peer-reviewed trial or clinical evidence supports the claims made by the manufacturer. Having anything to do with this “lemon,” is poor policy.
February 27th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Vaccines period are very dangerous, they are nothing but deadly chemicals injected into the body. And children who have no say of their own are the ones that face the deadly reactions from these vaccines.
March 4th, 2012 at 7:51 pm
HPV is not spread solely by “genital contact.” There are many studies showing that it can be spread to a baby from an infected mother at birth, by casual contact, and has even been found in toddlers, nuns who have had no sexual experiences, and underneath the fingernails of young boys! You need to do your homework. The primary cause of HPV spreading is sexual contact, but not the ONLY way… and unless you do an HPV test on these girls you have no way of knowing whether they’ve already been exposed or not, even at age 9. AND IF THEY’VE ALREADY BEEN EXPOSED THE VACCINE DOESN’T WORK. This vaccine is being given indiscriminately to young girls around the world based on assumptions. And, like one of the researchers who helped invent this vaccine said in 2007, this is nothing but A BIG PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERIMENT, if for no other reason than the vaccine only protects against 2 viruses that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers. So vaccinated or not, girls can still get cervical cancer, and die, if they don’t get their Pap smears.