This is dope. While the class issues involved in the FDA approval of the HPV vaccine is a huge concern (to be vaccinated costs nearly 400 dollars), girls in certain states will now have the access to the vaccine, and for free.
The Vaccines for Children Program received federal funding to give 17,000 girls in New Hampshire next year the HPV vaccine for free. Additionally, the VFC Program is funding Oregon, giving girls who are enrolled in Medicaid or the Oregon Health Plan, are uninsured or are an Alaskan native the vaccine as well.
It’s not everyone, but it’s certainly a start.
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but... but... what about the evil teen sex cults that are sure to result???!!!
/sarcasm.
That is awesome. And it even makes financial sense in a dispassionate way: the societal cost from HPV probably outweighs the cost of the vaccine--perhaps especially so if the vaccine is available free to the poor, who are less likely to be able to afford good preventative care, and therefore more likely to end up with a HPV-related problem AFAIK.
How on earth did they get federal funding before January?
That's wonderful that they are offering the life-saving vaccine for free to some girls--of course, if this was polio (and it affected male children) it would automatically be free.
But in any case, I'm here to testify that I got my first injection of the HPV vaccine (its $150 an injection at my university and there are three shots; I got one Dec. 1, and I'm scheduled for Feb. 1 & May 1st. I'm a graduate student, so I'm kinda of cash poor, but I ain't poor, so I'm saving for my vaccine before each injection). Anyway, just to testify, it doesn't hurt anymore than a flu injection and I didn't have any cold-like symptoms or similar. My arm hurt for maybe a day. I would recommend to anyone considering getting the vaccine (who can afford it--sadly enough) to go ahead and get it.
Bright Blessings & JusticePeace,
Heather
some news is good news.
thanks for this.
and thanks for the link, p.s.
you're welcome, it was long overdue. i'm a lazy ass when it comes to the blogroll. ;)
Why aren't boys getting it too? Getting rid of the vectors will also help reducing infections in women.
Hmm, I'm the daughter of someone born in Alaska, does that count?
arturo: yes, it will. but in a limited use of the vaccine, it's better to provide it free to girls instead of boys
The simple explanation is that women suffer somewhat more from the effects of HPV than men do. That alone is a good enough reason to selectively offer it to women IMO. But also, FWIW, women can pass it on at birth to the next generation and men cannot because of course they don't give birth ;) So the long term effects are also slightly more beneficial for women there as well.
Obviously it would be preferable to vaccinate everyone. But given that this isn't an option right now for a variety of reasons, this makes some sense.
It bothers me that feminists have taken the bait with this issue. Don't you think there is a connection between the FDAs long refusal to approve Plan B and the rush to have this vaccine pushed on young girls as another "must have"?
Vaccines make billions of dollars a year and since the deregulation of the FDA there has been a push for vaccine or vaccine like drugs to get to market.
Here's an article I wrote eariler this year.
I am a mother of two children, one of them who has a number of chronic illnesses brought on by vaccination --the MMRs. My son is by a miracle not autistic but he has all the health imprints of children poised and turned austistic by vaccines that were supposed to have been safe for years.
Go read my article and check out what the National Vaccine Information Center has to say about Gardasil. It's not that it's bad; but that there is evidence to believe that clinical trials were bent in order to rush the vaccine to market.
And go read about my experience as someone who got paid to write the excuses consumer affairs reps would give to injured consumers over the products the big Fortune500 I used to work for.
There is no need to be jumping with joy. Children in the US are overvaccinated --and that is not a good thing when the next vaccine can either neurologically alter your child for life or seriously wreck their immune system. It was not supposed to be this way but since the deregulation of the FDA in the 1990s it has.
Honestly women. Get all your facts together before jumping for joy over a pharmaceutical.
Liza Sabater
http://culturekitchen.com
I think that's a great start -- when will the wackos start screaming that we're allowing girls to be sluts?
Sailorman -- That sounds a bit heterocentric. I think everyone should get vaccinated -- gay men are vulnerable to this disease too. We gay men generally tend not to have teh sex with women :)