sometimes people piss me off ...
excerpted from letters to the NY times today, regarding the possibility of mandatory HPV vaccination
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/opinion/l28vaccine.html
To the Editor:
A vaccine necessary in what sense?
I am a physician, a pathologist and a father. I am not anti-vaccine, anti-establishment or anti established medical care. Nor do I believe that the vaccine will promote promiscuity. I am against mandatory requirements for a social disease.
I can only hope that as attentive parents, my wife and I impart sufficient common sense, proper values and a solid education to our daughter such that she will not suffer from the major risk factors of the human papillomavirus, or H.P.V., and cervical cancer: early age at first intercourse, multiple sexual partners and a partner with multiple previous sexual partners.
I see mandatory requirements for this vaccine as a sign that our society perceives good parenting to be failing.
David Alter, M.D.
Grand Rapids, Mich., Feb. 26, 2007
i fucking hate this letter. here is a breakdown of all the things i hate about it:
1) equating STDs with a lack of "common sense, proper values, and a solid education."
HPV is one of those diseases that's so hard to pinpoint. you can use condoms - the hallmark of common sense, solid education, and, to people like me, proper values - and STILL get HPV. you could have sex with one person, and your partner could have had sex with one other person, and still get HPV. hence, from my own first-hand experience at the free clinic and in life, it seems to be widespread among all socioeconomic and age groups. my cousin - bright, ambitious, upper-middle class, not young at the time - got genital warts from her very first sexual partner, who was a stanford undergrad and, like her, bright, ambitious, and also upper-middle class. and i can't count how many cal undergrads come into the free clinic with eerily similar stories.
it's bad enough that STDs exist. stigmatizing them will only make the situation worse. heaping shame and embarrassment on those who have STDs will discourage testing and proper communication with partners and will only add to the welter of ignorance and misinformation out there.
2) equating "good parenting" with celibate kids.
i can remember the first time my mom found out i was having sex with a good number of people i wasn't in monogamous relationships with. she burst into tears and said "what did we do wrong?" rather than feeling ashamed like she probably expected me to be, i was really pissed off. ok, so aside from this minor annoyance, i think my parents have been GREAT parents, and they've overall raised me right. they've taught me to speak up for myself, to work hard, to be politically conscious and politically active, to be unafraid to be smart. and, not to brag, but i feel like i have enough of what the world sees as "good credentials" to back this assertion up. what would this dude say to my parents, faced with the range of evidence? would he still accuse them of being "bad parents"? i mean, what does he value most in raising children?
3) in general, thinking that multiple sexual partners is a bad thing.
it's not. sex in its "best" form - and by that i mean that there's good communication and a healthy power dynamic between partners - is FUN. people who have good relationships and good sex, in my opinion, tend to be the most well-adjusted; because sex involves a lot of the skills necessary to be a good friend, coworker, and citizen - COMMUNICATION, as mentioned, and negotiating between your needs and the needs of others. it teaches you how to draw boundaries, how to speak up, how to be generous but also ask that your own needs be met.
what's so wrong with intimacy? people value having lots of friends; why not lots of fuck buddies and boy/girlfriends?
4) that a guy this dense is a practicing physician. imagine you're a frightened teenaged girl and you have to go into see this guy. what'll he say? well, i can guess he won't be client centered. perhaps he'd even give you a lecture ... make you think you got what you deserved for having premarital sex. OMG. pisses me off so much.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/opinion/l28vaccine.html
To the Editor:
A vaccine necessary in what sense?
I am a physician, a pathologist and a father. I am not anti-vaccine, anti-establishment or anti established medical care. Nor do I believe that the vaccine will promote promiscuity. I am against mandatory requirements for a social disease.
I can only hope that as attentive parents, my wife and I impart sufficient common sense, proper values and a solid education to our daughter such that she will not suffer from the major risk factors of the human papillomavirus, or H.P.V., and cervical cancer: early age at first intercourse, multiple sexual partners and a partner with multiple previous sexual partners.
I see mandatory requirements for this vaccine as a sign that our society perceives good parenting to be failing.
David Alter, M.D.
Grand Rapids, Mich., Feb. 26, 2007
i fucking hate this letter. here is a breakdown of all the things i hate about it:
1) equating STDs with a lack of "common sense, proper values, and a solid education."
HPV is one of those diseases that's so hard to pinpoint. you can use condoms - the hallmark of common sense, solid education, and, to people like me, proper values - and STILL get HPV. you could have sex with one person, and your partner could have had sex with one other person, and still get HPV. hence, from my own first-hand experience at the free clinic and in life, it seems to be widespread among all socioeconomic and age groups. my cousin - bright, ambitious, upper-middle class, not young at the time - got genital warts from her very first sexual partner, who was a stanford undergrad and, like her, bright, ambitious, and also upper-middle class. and i can't count how many cal undergrads come into the free clinic with eerily similar stories.
it's bad enough that STDs exist. stigmatizing them will only make the situation worse. heaping shame and embarrassment on those who have STDs will discourage testing and proper communication with partners and will only add to the welter of ignorance and misinformation out there.
2) equating "good parenting" with celibate kids.
i can remember the first time my mom found out i was having sex with a good number of people i wasn't in monogamous relationships with. she burst into tears and said "what did we do wrong?" rather than feeling ashamed like she probably expected me to be, i was really pissed off. ok, so aside from this minor annoyance, i think my parents have been GREAT parents, and they've overall raised me right. they've taught me to speak up for myself, to work hard, to be politically conscious and politically active, to be unafraid to be smart. and, not to brag, but i feel like i have enough of what the world sees as "good credentials" to back this assertion up. what would this dude say to my parents, faced with the range of evidence? would he still accuse them of being "bad parents"? i mean, what does he value most in raising children?
3) in general, thinking that multiple sexual partners is a bad thing.
it's not. sex in its "best" form - and by that i mean that there's good communication and a healthy power dynamic between partners - is FUN. people who have good relationships and good sex, in my opinion, tend to be the most well-adjusted; because sex involves a lot of the skills necessary to be a good friend, coworker, and citizen - COMMUNICATION, as mentioned, and negotiating between your needs and the needs of others. it teaches you how to draw boundaries, how to speak up, how to be generous but also ask that your own needs be met.
what's so wrong with intimacy? people value having lots of friends; why not lots of fuck buddies and boy/girlfriends?
4) that a guy this dense is a practicing physician. imagine you're a frightened teenaged girl and you have to go into see this guy. what'll he say? well, i can guess he won't be client centered. perhaps he'd even give you a lecture ... make you think you got what you deserved for having premarital sex. OMG. pisses me off so much.