February 26, 2007
You have probably already decided whether you are for or against the Governor’s stand mandating the HPV vaccine. I’m not going to try to change your mind. But I do want to give you some things to think about that haven’t been widely discussed.
First, a great deal of opposition to the HPV vaccine was based on the very valid concern that mandating this vaccine for sixth graders would require sex education and would lead to less abstinence, which we all agree, at least most of us readers of Texans for Texas, is the best way to cut down any STD. My expectation was that by mandating this vaccine my daughter, on entering sixth grade, would receive this vaccination along with any others that are prescribed at that time. She certainly didn’t get lectures when she received shots for Hepatitis A and B, and Tetanus. She would not need a lecture to get the HPV vaccine.
If you’ve been following the debate you’ve heard hundreds of people against mandating the vaccine argue that parents need to be educated so they can decide whether to allow their children to receive the HPV vaccine. This sounds great. But follow me here. What are they going to be educated about? There is no way you can educate about HPV without educating about sex. And while one may want to believe the information about HPV could be discreetly given to parents, you know that won’t happen. Our sixth graders will receive the education about HPV, which, no matter what educators call it, will be sex education. Not mandating the HPV vaccine will greatly increase sex education at its worst, which presumes no abstinence, that most of you are against.
Second, many people have valid safety concerns. If your daughter can’t get HPV than any exposure to a vaccine increases her risk of having something go wrong. But I find it strange that those of you who don’t trust Merck or medical professionals about the safety of this vaccine, trust those same people when they say that HPV can only be transmitted sexually.
In fact a study from Cambridge in 1999 found: “CONCLUSION: This study has identified hand carriage of genital HPV types in patients with genital warts. Although sexual intercourse is considered the usual mode of transmitting genital HPV infection, our findings raise the possibility of transmission by finger-genital contact.” If AIDS can be transmitted through non-sexual contact I do not find it credible to believe that HPV can’t be transmitted to our daughters through non-sexual contact.
Third, I am very concerned that many of the complaints about the HPV vaccination challenge the public health rational for mandated vaccines. Contrary to what many of my great civil libertarian friends are claiming, no one has a constitutional right to not take vaccines. It is good that Texas allows people to opt out of taking vaccines. But vaccines are a great public good that states have the power to mandate in order to protect public safety.
Vaccines are most effective when 90% or more of the population takes them. Vaccines not only protect you. They protect everyone who might otherwise be exposed to sick people. Next to some public health measures such as clean water, vaccines are the most cost effective way of preventing medical problems. Keep in mind that health insurance is not health care. Health insurance does not guarantee one iota of additional health care. Vaccines are health care at its best and least intrusive.
One great study Using Economics to Save Lives has shown that many popular anti “pollution” programs save less than one life year for well over each million dollars spent. For example to save one year of life a program: to Ban asbestos in automatic transmission components costs $86,786,787, to control radionuclide emissions at elemental phosphorus plants costs $7,114,716, to control arsenic emissions at glass manufacturing plants costs $1,755,456. Even something as useful as increasing the number of heart transplants that are performed costs $206,669 for each year of live saved. Yet the HPV vaccine, even at its currently high price costs less than $15,000 for each year of life saved.
I thank everyone who has been involved in this issue. We may not agree on everything, but we are having the type of public discussion that is necessary to make the best decisions. Eternal vigilance is a small price to pay for freedom.
Royal Masset is one of a handful of people who built the Republican Party of Texas, Royal continues to serve Texas as a successful political consultant, author and speaker on policy issues.
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