Bowling and Texans

[flyinbutrs]

Last night, we went bowling at Jox's fundraising thingie. It was really awesome... I mean, not to sound like a jew, but $10 for three hours of bowling, pool tables, and food!! totally awesome. Plus, our drunken bowling shenanigans were videotaped for posterity. I want to see the video. Actually, on second thought, I probably don't want to see the video.


Also, I was thinking this morning about Texas. Don't ask me why, but I was. So, a month or so ago, Texas' republican governor, Rick Perry, announced that he was requiring doctors in the state to give HPV vaccinations to all (female) schoolchildren. As you might imagine in texas, there was quite a bit of backlash to this. Now, while I don't necessarily agree with the christian right's fear of their children having sex, but I can understand it. What I don't understand, is how giving them an HPV vaccine would hurt? Seriously, I had a crapload of vaccinations and shots when I was a kid... I never had any idea what they were for. How about just getting your kids the injections and not telling them what they are for??

Comments

[desh]

The non-religious-right argument against mandatory HPV vaccinations is that it's too new to really be certain that it's side-effect-free. Plus, the whole government intrusiveness thing.

[below-the-belt.livejournal.com]

...in fact, some side effects have already been detected. the content below was copied from a myspace post from a friend who got it from her mom who got it from who-knows-where, but if you follow the links at the bottom they lead to more info at the national vaccine info center website [which i trust].

i think it's also important to recognize that gardasil is a merck product, and merck does not have a record of consumer accountability or prioritizing consumer health and safety - so i wouldn't be surprised if they had not sufficiently tested the product.

" ....post-marketing safety has not been demonstrated. As of end of January, 615 reports of adverse events following GARDASIL administration have been filed with the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). These data are publicly available http://...com/374zm2 . The reports include some serious adverse events including five cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, atypical syncopal episodes some of which are combined with seizures, paresthesia, facial paralysis and vision and speech disturbances. There is some challenge-rechallenge evidence as well.
http://nvic.org/Diseases/HPV/HPVrpt.htm
http://nvic.org/Diseases/HPV/HPVRPT2.htm"

[desh]

Yeah, the Merckcentric aspect of the whole thing too, for sure.

A friend of mine had two posts in her LJ a month ago that spawned a bit of discussion on the topic. If you're interested: http://janinedog.livejournal.com/546075.html and http://janinedog.livejournal.com/547037.html.

[bumonyou.livejournal.com]

I think that it is fine to give your kids vaccines and not tell them what they are for. Hell, if you tell a child they are getting their MMR shot or their HPV shot, they won't know what those acronyms are (until they look it up on wikipedia or something). The troubling aspect is that the main financial backer pushing legislative reforms that require HPV vaccinations is Big Pharma.

Summary: I don't like genital warts or cervical cancer, but I don't trust anyone or anything, especially the unplanned love-child of industry and politicians.

[kalalau.livejournal.com]

Bowling and Texans just seem to go together.

[jox.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed yourself. I'd love to get my hands on that footage too, but I doubt a lot of it will be used. Oh well...