Comments on: Anti-Vaccine Activists and Conservative Christians vs HPV Vaccination

By: Internet Information — The Good, Bad, and Ugly « The SkeptVet Blog

Internet Information — The Good, Bad, and Ugly « The SkeptVet Blog — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:20:15 +0000

[...] affiliations and associations of people offering information to the public. My recent post on the association between conservative Catholics and anti-vaccine activists is an example of how hidden agendas behind information presented as objective and scientific can be [...]

By: The 123rd Congregation of the Skeptics’ Circle

The 123rd Congregation of the Skeptics’ Circle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:11:15 +0000

[...] Ah yes, SkeptVet did mention something about that: the strange union of the conservative Christians and New-Age [...]

By: Bartimaeus

Bartimaeus — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:10:03 +0000

Some states have considered making it mandatory (apparently Texas did consider it due to high rates of teen sex) but even then would have had some type of waiver. It seems to be the same type of religious denialism-”my child could not be at risk of contracting an STD”. Even when statistics show that a large percentage of high school students are sexually active.
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/immunizations/a/0207_hpv_school.htm

I don’t know that any states have made it mandatory, especially after the fear and religiously-based protests. Here in Arizona, it is available at low cost from county health departments, but is not mandated by the schools. I suspect many less kids are getting it as it involves three trips to the health department on a parents initiative. If the evidence of safety and effectiveness is there (orac is concerned about the high cost of the vaccine and questions it’s cost-effectiveness) giving it at school, even if it is optional is probably a good idea.

By: skeptvet

skeptvet — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:05:52 +0000

Well, there have been efforts to make it a mandatory vaccine for attendance at public schools, which is the source of some of the controversy.

By: Bartimaeus

Bartimaeus — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:04:49 +0000

Good to see that Dr. Harper was misquoted, sadly an all too common occurrence.
It always amazes me that when people want to avoid something like Gardasil for their own religious reasons, they can’t leave it at that, but want to deprive everyone else of a potential benefit as well. Why is the Establishment Clause so difficult to understand? I haven’t heard anything about making Gardasil mandatory, just recommended-don’t get it if you don’t want it, but don’t lie and distort the evidence to try to eliminate it.

By: skeptvet

skeptvet — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:11:41 +0000

The Skeptical OB, Amy Tuteur, found more complete quotations from Dr. Harper’s address which illustrate the point she intended to make and how the journalist took what she said out of context to spin it into an indictment of Gardasil. Below is her comment:

“The doctor was misquoted.

Dr. Harper said:

“In developed countries where Pap screening systems have been effective for decades, the biggest value of the HPV vaccine will not be in preventing DEATHS from cervical cancer.” (my emphasis)

That’s because routine Pap smears identify precancerous cells that can be treated before they become cancerous, and identify early cancers that can be effectively treated with radical hysterectomy.

So while deaths will not decrease, we can look forward to a dramatic decrease in the number of cervical laser procedures for precancerous cells, and a dramatic decrease in the number of radical hysterectomies.

Sure, we could forget about preventing cervical cancer and just treat it when it develops (continuing to enrich the gyn oncologists) or we could prevent it with the vaccine. Prevention is better than even the most successful treatment.

Moreover, Dr. Harper reports that she has received money from both Merck and GlaxoSmithKline for consultation about and conducting clinical trials on the HPV vaccines. Her overall impression of the vaccine:

“This is a good vaccine and it is generally safe,” she said.”