PZ Myers doesn't think much of the argument against universal vaccinations which protect against cervical cancer. "The vaccine appears to be virtually 100 percent effective against two of the most common cancer-causing HPV strains."
Yet these sick, evil people want to be able to hold this horrible disease as a threat to their daughters, their friends' daughters, their neighbors' daughters—they want to be able to say to their kids, "If you don't obey my rules, your womb will rot and dribble out your private parts, and you'll thrash in pain for a while before you die and go to hell."
Yep. These miserable people insist upon abstinence rather than face the fact that teenagers might have sex. If they turn out to be wrong, some of those kids just might contract a deadly disease, but (their) God forbids that it should be prevented through a simple jab with a needle.
Oh, by the way, one of the members of the FDA panel which is deciding on this medicine is a former member of Focus on the Family. Don't you feel confident that science will overcome idiocy now?
Posted by Linkmeister at November 2, 2005 12:01 AM | TrackBackI don't think they're against the vaccine, just making it mandatory.
Which, I agree, is stupid because if everyone's vaccinated, the disease can be erradicated.
But there are religious people of various religions, or of no religion at all, denying their children vaccinations.
I was just watching a show on PBS where they showed I think it was Muslims in India, who were in the middle of a Polio outbreak, and refusing to allow their children to be vaccinated, apparently because of religious convictions of some type.
Of course they also showed prostitutes in Africa with the attitude that if they get AIDS, it's just obviously their "destiny".
I really thought we were a little more progressed than those kinds of attitudes.
And I mean, I believe indoor cats should only be required by law to have rabies vaccinations every 3 years instead of the required once a year, because all studies have shown that the vaccinations last at the very least, 3 years. But I would never say, hey, let's not vaccinate cats at all, and live in neighborhoods over-run with rabid feral felines lurking in all the rubbish bins!
However, there's a whole movement in the U.S., involving not poor, white, not-religious, people, who are refusing to have their children vaccinated against all sorts of potentially deadly & extremly contageous common childhood diseases.
They call themselves "non-vax" in on-line forums and baby-related e-mail discussion lists, and the anti-vaccination movement is not exactly small either.
(Many of these people believe that their children will get autism or ADD from mercury in vaccinations.)
I think these people are nutty, frankly.
But then I might be biased against these people because the first time I ever heard of someone being anti-vaccination, the same woman was someone who was breast-feeding her 4 year old, and apparently was very proud to disclose that there were "nipple games" involved.
I'm sure not all the non-vax people are pervy weirdos who like their 4 year olds to fondle & play with their overlong-lactating boobs.
But I do think almost all of them are misguided.
But okay fine, let some people opt out of the HPV vaccination. Then maybe they'll be the only ones with HPV.
I could see it now... Average parents saying, "Stay away from Timmy, his parents are conservative Christians, so he he probably has HPV." heh.
Of course I guess men will still have it, because they aren't proposing vaccinating boys? That seems a terribly flaw in the process, as it's the men that spread it from woman to woman. (Lesbians, last I checked, are only like less than 2% of the population, right? And I'm not even sure they're at high risk of spreading these strains of HPV.)
The thing I worry most about... is not just that insurance companies can get out of paying out for it...
But that this whole attitude might go beyond the opting-out, and translate into denial of public funding for it (say under Medicaid), so that poor people, not just their children, but themselves, will be unable to get this vaccination.
I'm wondering if I'll be able to afford it when it's available. Because frankly, I'd actually like this vaccination myself.
And I don't think that portrays me as "slutty". heh. As even if I was inclined to wait until marriage to have sex, how could I be sure my prospective husband was a virgin & HPV free? There are apparently no tests that can conclusively prove a man is definitely not carrying the cancer causing HPV strains.
And frankly, at my age, unless I was to get quite pervy about the dating pools I dip my toe into, & start considering young boys, (YICK)... Well I think it's rather unlikely I could find a virgin to marry. Heck, there are enough difficult criteria to meet for a life partner as it is, so let's not get ridiculous. heh.
And this makes the moral argument about it just being the consequences of promiscuous moot...
Because a virgin bride can catch this from her husband who's slept with just one other person (maybe his late wife) who slept with one other person (maybe his late wife was raped...) ...
So it's women who are dealt these "consequences" of someone else's "sins", even if they've been models of moral purity and righteousness, and even if the man of their choice is not a debaucher.
How does this figure into the morality scheme, I ask?
There's no fairness or justice to disease. Therefore it has little to do with morals.
Furthermore, as I've said before, and I'll say it again. NOTHING can make sexual activity seem more enticing than rampaging hormones in teenage boys, and the obsessive boy-crazy desire of 90% of teenage girls to snag a boyfriend, and the at least 33% who are willing to "put out" to do so.
Don't even get me started on how I believe that 99% of the most promiscuous teenage girls really believe on some level, that every boy they sleep with is going to suddenly fall madly in love with them & they'll be married right after high school graduation, and that 99% of the boys who are sleeping with them are perfectly willing to let them believe so, for at least an hour or so, if it means they'll be gettin' it.
And I believe that if the conservatives really want to discourage pre-marital sex, they'd stop telling their daughters they'll go to heaven if they abstain, and start teaching their sons to have more respect for women in this life.
Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away. haha.
Posted by: Chloe at November 2, 2005 01:54 AMNo need to apologize, Chloe!
Posted by: Linkmeister at November 2, 2005 07:46 AMI read there is a small % of Catholic Nuns who have HPV, but maybe I shouldn't go there.
Many believe that women are evil just because they are women-like we're all over the globe, in food stores, buying gas, baking cupcakes and such and all the while trying to entice men to commit unspeakable deeds.
It doesn't suprise me that some people want women to "obey their rules or their wombs will rot"
How sad to be hated because of your sex.. I mean there isn't anything we can do about it..except maybe goto Dr. 90210....
Posted by: Toxiclabrat at November 4, 2005 12:32 PMI read there is a small % of Catholic Nuns who have HPV, but maybe I shouldn't go there.
Where the heck did you read that?
Well, not like it wouldn't stand to reason. Jesus isn't exactly like a medeival lord or kenyan male... I mean it's not like he'd be refusing to marry a convent postulate for not having her hymen intact.
Indeed, I think many nuns are women who were once married. In fact, I think I've heard of nuns who have children (from pregnancies before they were nuns).
And after all, it only takes one sexual contact (doesn't even have to be full sexual intercourse), to contract HPV.
I met a nun in the waiting room of a dental implant surgeon. There are certainly some perks to entering the convent later in life. ;) (Dental implants are very expensive, and not covered by any dental insurance I've ever heard of.)
And I think I read somewhere that unlike the old days, when women usually entered the convent early in life - much like women used to generally marry young, these days more women enter the convent later in life.
It would stand to reason there's more chance someone later in life has already had at least some incidents of sexual contact.
Sorry, I guess I went off on a tangent again. ;)
Anyway, baking cupcakes is certainly the single most obvious example of how women lead men astray of morality. haha. ;)
Posted by: Chloe at November 4, 2005 11:36 PM