And this is how Merck, one of the pharmaceutical companies that want to convince us we all need to be medicated all the time for everything, has bought itself an HPV vaccine supporter in Rick Perry:
Over the past five years, it turns out that Merck [the company that manufacturers the vaccine] gave over $350,000 to the Republican Governors Association, a period in which Perry was heavily involved with the group, and the RGA in turn gave $4 million to Rick Perry.
And wait some more! Merck’s lobbyist on the vaccine issue was Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff. Toomey recently co-founded a super PAC that plans to raise over $50 million for Perry’s campaign.
The reason Bachmann is still against the vaccine has nothing to do with anybody’s religious or political beliefs. She simply hasn’t been paid yet by Merck.
So much rubbish has been said and written recently about the vaccine in an attempt to present it as some sort of an ideological issue. I have even seen hints that being in favor of this vaccine is some sort of a feminist and progressive statement.
The Merck CEOs, in the meanwhile, are laughing all the way to the bank as they imagine the silly rubes they have been able to dupe into believing that womanhood and human sexuality are potentially lethal by nature.
If you are a pseudo-Liberal who wants to attack me for this post, don’t waste your time. You, guys, have Merck on your side, which means you have won already. Soon, the HPV vaccine will be mandatory for everybody. So you can just relax. As you are reading this right now, Merck is probably busy buying out everybody who needs to be bought to force people to take their garbage.
Clarissa's Blog 
I remember you’ve said before that you believe illness is psychosomatic. So…that includes all illness? Even STDs? Or are there exceptions?
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In every chain through which an STD passes, there are people who are infected and those who are not.
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Ah, I see what you’re doing there Clarissa. You’re just annoyed that Merck hasn’t given you your cut yet.
Anyway, I will turn on my pseudo-liberal logic chip here and make the point here that I think is most salient for me: As much as I, a liberal texan who hates Rick Perry, would like to see the man brought down, there are a couple of things that I like about him.
The first is that his stance on the HPV vaccine was not knee-jerk anti science.
The second was the other point that he has been bashed over by the rest of the GOP: providing in-state tuition for children of illegals.
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Yes, his stand on the HPV vaccine was, rather, knee-jerk pro-Big Pharma. Not extremely surprising in a Republican candidate, to be honest. Haven’t you noticed how Conservatives are always in favor of the science that can be milked for cash? They are all totally in favor of the science behind the military complex, for example.
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I suppose it’s irrational but I rate some stupidities as worse than others in my mind.
When I weigh the stupidity of knee-jerk, pro-business republicans against the stupidity of knee-jerk, pro-religion republicans, I am left preferring the pro-business ones.
This is all an academic discussion anyway, since we’d be probably be fucked either way with any of these republican candidates in the white house.
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“This is all an academic discussion anyway, since we’d be probably be fucked either way with any of these republican candidates in the white house.”
– You can say that again. 😦 I don’t think the Republicans will win in 2012, though.
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I haven’t been following this issue so much, but the vacinne has been advertised for quite a long time now, since cervical cancer is a health concern for women. If women encounter health issues with their reproductive organs and surgery is brought to the table, then removing the cervix is usually promoted by physicians given the threat of cervical cancer, as is removing the ovaries.
My understanding about the vaccine is really based upon its being promoted as a tool for prevention of cervical cancer for some women and it can take a while for the disease to show up. For most women those issues don’t arise until they hit their mid years.
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*In every chain through which an STD passes, there are people who are infected and those who are not.*
Do reasons why people become ill matter? You think it’s psychological, I think psychology is sometimes a contributing factor, f.e. depression, but not always. Whatever the reason, advocating vaccination as a public policy is a right decision. Are you against all other vaccines too, despite understanding that without them for reasons XYZ many people would become ill?
People aren’t perfect, their lives aren’t and will never be perfect, and public policy must reflect that. Otherwise, one gets conservatives arguing against the vaccine because their perfect daughters will never have sex (except with their virgin, 100% disease free husbands – hahaha on that last bit!) and some liberals talking how their child doesn’t need it because s/he will lead a healthy lifestyle and not get ill. Btw, what about other people in that chain? Even if somebody doesn’t become ill, s/he can badly hurt others by passing it on.
I am optimistic of support for HPV Vaccine (whatever its’ reasons are) because if it becomes mandatory (with opt-out version, as usual) than poor people with especially not ideal lives will be able to give it their kids too. And others will opt out, if they wish, so nobody gets hurt. Except when a parent opts out for “my daughter is a virgin” reason and then she gets HPV.
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“Are you against all other vaccines too, despite understanding that without them for reasons XYZ many people would become ill?”
-I’m very pro childhood vaccination. But I have to get suspicious when a gender-based vaccine is pushed so blatantly by pharmaceuticals that bribe politicians.
“I am optimistic of support for HPV Vaccine (whatever its’ reasons are) because if it becomes mandatory (with opt-out version, as usual) than poor people with especially not ideal lives will be able to give it their kids too. And others will opt out, if they wish, so nobody gets hurt. Except when a parent opts out for “my daughter is a virgin” reason and then she gets HPV.”
-HPV vaccines are administered to people who are old enough to decide for themselves if they want them. However, obligatory vaccination is a huge problem the way it is done right now. Next week I will be vaccinated with the vaccines newborns get for the fourth time in my life. The FOURTH time!!! I have my shoulders covered with vaccine marks but I have to get the same stupid vaccines I move to a new country. This is obviously not good for my health but I have no choice because the immigration is pushing me to do it. Every single time.
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*I have to get suspicious when a gender-based vaccine is pushed so blatantly by pharmaceuticals that bribe politicians.*
But all medicine works like that, so I don’t see any reason to be more suspicious than usual. Besides, with all hysteria about sex, the vaccine developers have one more reason to push it.
*HPV vaccines are administered to people who are old enough to decide for themselves if they want them*
In US 9-14 years old don’t have a legal right to make such decisions.
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‘But all medicine works like that, so I don’t see any reason to be more suspicious than usual”
-I am usually extremely suspicious of any medication. I think I let this be known many times on this very blog.
‘Besides, with all hysteria about sex, the vaccine developers have one more reason to push it.”
-You seriously think they care about people’s sexual fulfillment? Let’s not be naive.
“In US 9-14 years old don’t have a legal right to make such decisions.”
-Any normal parent would leave such a decision to their child. Of course, there are monsters who think they own their kids’ bodies. But these kids will have severe issues, no matter how many times they get vaccinated.
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*Besides, with all hysteria about sex, the vaccine developers have one more reason to push it. *
I mean have to buy politicians, even if it works great and prevents numerous horrible things HPV causes.
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How is repeated vaccination “obviously not good for [your] health”?
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Oh so you think getting vaccinated with the same vaccines FOUR times is good for a person? Then why don’t we all get vaccinated every week? How many times did you personally get vaccinated with MMR?
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There’s no evidence that it’s harmful, certainly. I got all the normal childhood vaccinations plus at least one booster for MMR – plus all the ones that weren’t normally done when I was a child, about two years ago (required for college) – I believe that was the MMR booster, plus the hep B course, plus a chicken pox booster, plus the rabies pre-exposure series. Seven vaccinations that summer. Is there no option for you to get titers done rather than repeat the vaccinations, seeing as you don’t want them?
I don’t generally let my fourteen-year-old make decisions about his own health, though whether or not he receives the HPV vaccination is likely to depend on whether our insurance covers it. I certainly don’t let the nine-year-old make such decisions. It is part of my responsibility for them to make sure that they receive proper medical care whether they want to or not.
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1. An HPV vaccine, to be maximally effective, should be administered to both girls and boys.
2. There is such a thing as male HPV-related disease. Oropharyngeal (back of mouth) cancer, anal cancer, and penile cancer are overwhelmingly HPV-initiated and driven cancers. The lowly genital wart (condyloma acuminatum) can be persistent and can develop into cancer (not all do).
3. Effective vaccination against the common “high-risk” (for cancer) HPV types (types16 and 18 are the most prevalent of these in the USA) should decrease the incidence of cervical cancer, vulvar and anal cancer, vaginal cancer, oropharyngeal cancer (more common in men than women, due to the requirement for additional tumorigenic events) and the male genital cancers listed above.
4. Eventually the percentage of HPV types targeted by the vaccine will decrease, and “new” HPV types will become predominant in the heavily vaccinated areas. These “new” HPV types will arrive first from other parts of the world where non-16/18 HPV types predominate. The microbiome abhors a vacuum.
and
5. Yes, Rick Perry is a venal p.o.s. (I don’t know the Spanish for this colloquialism).
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Why are there no attempts to promote this vaccination for men, in your opinion? Or at least none that one sees in the mainstream media?
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Men do not get cervical cancer, and so cannot be frightened as readily about HPV infections.
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i think i talked about this earlier in one of your posts…
an HPV vaccine would protect men from penile, oropharyngeal and anal cancers. However, since this is a sexually transmitted virus, the logical question would be how are men getting it in, say, their rectums? The answer is obvious, and it’s not one any politician is willing to discuss openly.
The only thing I see as sexist about this vaccine is that we are not protecting boys and men who might engage in sexual activity beyond simple heterosexual intercourse–which many boys and men do.
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You are really not bothered by all these ads that constantly present women’s bodies as in need of fixing? From childhood with HPV vaccines, throughout our lives with Midol, and then eventually with “hormonal replacement” during menopause? Or maybe you think that Midol and Hormonal replacement are also good things?
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sigh. deja vu all over again, and yes that is written with irony.
Menstrual cycles, sex, pregnancy, menopause- these are all normal, healthy events.
Cancer is not a normal healthy event. We are not saying there is something *wrong* with women, or men for that matter, by offering a vaccine against 4 of the hundreds of HPV strains out there. Women, men, sex and sexual behavior are not the problems. If we thought they were we would be like those religious jerks preaching abstinence, a single life partner chosen by God, and claiming diseases like HIV and cervical cancer are punishment from on high. Accepting HPV vaccines, condoms and other methods for reducing sexually transmitted infections is the OPPOSITE of sexist. It is saying men and women, their bodies and whatever sexual behavior they choose as consenting adults is acceptable and deserves to be as safe as possible.
Comparing the vaccine to Midol is an insult to the thousands of women who die each year as a result of cervical cancer. And you may think their cancer was all psychological, but you don’t have the right to make that judgement for the dead and their families.
The only thing vaccine proponents claim is *wrong* is cancer because it can result in sterility/infertility, pain, suffering and death. Encouraging women to die of a preventable disease is the opposite of feminism.
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It is very weird to me that in answer to a simple yes or no question you would respond with this histrionic rant. All of these unasked for sighs, deja vus and drama make it impossible to take you seriously.
Can anybody explain to me why the vaccine fanatics are so given to hysteric rantings instead of answering simple questions directly? They act so besieged and self-righteous in a culture that is completely on their side and completely against those of us who try to resist getting medicated every 10 seconds. This makes no sense to me.
Seriously, what kind of an insane fanatic comes here to accuse me, of all people, of “encouraging women to die”?
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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“Encouraging women to die of a preventable disease is the opposite of feminism.”
-You have to be a serious creep and a total woman-hater to say a stupid thing like that. What does it even mean, “to encourage women to die’? Are women lemmings who will do whatever they are told to?
I hope you are being paid big bucks to troll the blogs of people who dare to oppose the culture of obsession with medication. Otherwise, I have no idea why you would post this rubbish.
“And you may think their cancer was all psychological, but you don’t have the right to make that judgement for the dead and their families.”
-What judgment did I make for any dead people? I don’t talk to dead people, you fool. And I don’t make any judgments for anybody’s families, dead or alive. Are you hearing voices or something? I simply share my worldview on my blog. Those who don’t like it are free to leave. Angry, nasty trolls like you are especially free to leave. Go guzzle some pills. I know they make you happy.
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I’m sorry that you mistook my disagreement for “trolling,” but I appreciate your obvious passion. I’m sure many others do as well.
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