Snapped Shot

It's truly an honour to note that the distinguished Vivian J. Paige has mentioned yours truly as playing a very small role in her reconsideration of her support for the Merck Gardasil vaccine. Not to mention the fact that not only is she far more well-spoken than I am on the subject, but that she has a much stronger grasp of concepts like "math" and "statistics" than I do, which makes her argument all the more convincing.

Vivian, while we may not agree on everything, it is truly a pleasure to be able to discuss these issues with you amicably, in a manner which I hope reflects well on the traditionally Virginian virtue of graceful discourse.

Also entering the debate is the Washington Post (h/t Ms. Paige, registration required-ish) and the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot, my former and very beloved hometown newspaper. You can find my previous attempts at reporting (and I do use the term loosely) on the matter here and here.

It's very delightful to see some of the other sides of the debate finally start to come out in the news. If only our delegates in the General Assembly had been as interested in getting to the bottom of the facts sooner.

The ball, as they say, is in Governor Kaine's court.

Lo and behold, in a followup to last week's story about Virginia's mandatory transfer of money from the Commonwealth to Merck, we find out from the director of the Federal Centers for Disease Control that Gardasil, Merck's vaccine for HPV, might not really be all that effective, and should not be made mandatory in any public school.

The chairman of the federal panel that recommended the new cervical-cancer vaccine for pre-teen girls says lawmakers should not make the inoculation mandatory, as the District and more than 20 states, including Virginia, are considering.
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Taken in a series of three shots at $120 each, Gardasil is the most expensive vaccine on the market. About 45 percent of children would be eligible for free vaccines from the federal Vaccinations for Children program, while the other 55 percent would depend on the state programs and insurance companies.

And for the few of you that suggested that I'm going on an anti-vaccine rampage, consider this gem:

But cancer data show that lawmakers looking to force pre-teen girls to take Gardasil, the lone vaccine on the market, are targeting the wrong age group.

Middle-school girls inoculated with the breakthrough vaccine will be no older than 18 when they pass Gardasil's five-year window of proven effectiveness -- more than a decade before the typical cancer patient contracts HPV, The Washington Times reported last week.
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Merck is still studying Gardasil's longevity and the potential for a booster shot.

See, that last sentence is what I mean about it not being "fully tested" yet. Until we've gone 10 years, and know what the vaccine's effectiveness is at that point, we really don't know if it'll be worth the Billions of dollars that we will be forcing ourselves to pay out for it.

Personally, I still think it's a bum deal.

Hopefully, Governor Kaine will see this money-grab for what it is, and send the bill flying back to the General Assembly, for some genuine debate, this time. The fact that this bill sailed through the Assembly the first time is a shame, considering all of the contradictory information that's out there!