These news stories came my way today via my list servs and friends (thanks, Susan!).
Texas Legislators vote down mandatory HPV vaccine.
In a 135-to-2 vote that appeared veto-proof, the Texas House gave final passage on Wednesday to a Senate bill that bars the state from ordering the shots until at least 2011. Even many supporters of the governor resented Mr. Perry’s proposal as an abuse of executive authority.
It was the right thing to do. The push for mandating the vaccine was coming from Big Pharma, and not the healthcare community.
BTW, Did you notice the Gardasil ad aimed at teenage girls on American Idol this week? Direct marketing to teens! I had a patient who says her daughter is wondering if she should get the vaccine because her friends “are all getting it”. Who would have predicted that a vaccine would be the new teen trend? Maybe they could combine it with a tatoo….
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New York Governor Elliot Spitzer proposes legislation to strengthen abortion rights in my home state.
Mr. Spitzer’s proposal would remove abortion from criminal statutes and make it a matter of professional and medical discretion. It would also repeal an old statute “that criminalizes, among other things, providing nonprescription contraception to minors,” according to the governor’s office..
While the proposed legislation will not change the new laws, it will create an environment in New York where doctors can feel freer to practice medicine that does not place their patient’s health in conflict with their own fear of recrimination .
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We’re all on the take from Big Pharma.
Nearly 95 percent of physicians in the United States receive free food,beverages, drug samples, sports tickets or other benefits from drug company sales representatives eager to influence their prescribing habits, according to a report today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
I stopped seeing reps this past year, and haven’t missed ’em. I admit, I still take lunch when they show up to see the docs who practice down the hall. I think I’ll stop that now.
Well, the Texas thing needed to go down.
BUT. Why only girls? Last week I saw a guy with HIV, anal verge cancer and scc of the oropharynx. Don’t you think protecting HIM from HPV might’ve been an idea?
I don’t think it should be mandated. That’s crazy. But I don’t think it should only be offered to girls.
If I remember correctly, New York was where women went before or just after Roe V Wade for abortions (I don’t remember the legalities). It appears that your state is, once again, going to become a haven for women in need – at least to a certain extant.
I want to move back to New York.
I think that Gardasil is a good idea, but I think it’s premature to mandate it. And I agree that it might not be a bad idea to vaccinate guys too. Sort of for herd immunity.
Also, it’s the people that can’t get things like pap smears and HPV vaccines (aka the really poor or those in the underdeveloped/developing world) who really need the HPV vaccine.