news we should call care about

converted from my 6/8/07 myspace blog.

i was doing my daily scan for interesting headlines in the health section of msnbc and came across this story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18769275/. the title is "STD shot stuck in the middle of U.S. culture war."
yes i have blogged about this before... but the fact that this is still a cultural/moral/political red herring instead of a public health non-issue is ridiculous.
of course it is. why? because this country is run by religious conservatives.
and why? because we allow them to run this country.
ie--Georgia legislature nixed a plan by a REPUBLICAN lawmaker who was trying to make HPV vaccines mandatory for girls entering 6th grade... after aggressive lobbying by religious conservatives who argued that, " vaccinating young girls could promote promiscuity."
further, the article said, "The religious conservatives did not want the government to mandate a vaccine for "something that is only contracted through sexual activity," said Sadie Fields, executive director of the Georgia Christian Alliance.
right. because true christians don't have sex before marriage. and if you do, then you deserve to die of cervical cancer.
if little sally isn't allowed to get the HPV vaccine when she's 11, and then chooses to have sex a couple years later, which in turn gives her HPV, which in turn gives her cervical cancer... THAT is what she gets for being so promiscuous. THAT is definitely what our Lord and Savior wants for our teenage girls who have sex before marriage. they deserve to die for their sins. let the punishment fit the crime.
the article says, "Cervical cancer kills 10 women a day in the U.S. and one in four U.S. women ages 14 to 59 is infected with HPV, according to a recent report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While Gardasil is not a magic bullet, it protects against the strains of HPV that cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases."
i dunno. as a nurse, i don't get it. as a woman, i don't get it. as a human being, i don't get it. unless someone is suicidal, why would anyone turn this vaccine down?
"Moira Gaul, director of women's and reproductive health at the conservative Family Research Council, said her group doesn't oppose the vaccine, but doesn't want it required.
'We think parents ought to be given a choice about what is best for their children,' she said."
What a shame that some parents think "what's best for their children" is living in a cloak of denial that may one day kill the daughters they are trying so hard to protect.