Y'all have been waiting for this one, I bet
So in case y'all haven't heard, Gov. Goodhair issued an executive order mandating that all girls entering middle school get the new Gardasil vaccine against HPV. My initial reaction was "Wow. He actually did something I can approve of." The more I think and read about it, though, the more I realize that it's crap on both a practical and philosophical level.
On the practical level, because the vaccine is so new, it costs roughly $600 for the series. Many insurance plans don't currently cover it and won't for some time. This means that if you're someone whose insurance won't cover it, you'll have to pay out-of-pocket, and many Texans will simply be unable to afford that kind of expense. Public health programs such as CHIP and Medicaid will already be feeling a significant crunch funding the vaccines for people already enrolled, and this means that the money won't be in those programs for additional people or to fund other health care needs. While I agree it's a public health issue, you can't catch HPV from sitting in the same classroom, riding a bus, getting sneezed on, or even sitting on a toilet seat. Thus, for me, it's simply lower priority than vaccines for things like measles, chicken pox, flu, and all the other bugs that one can catch by incredibly superficial casual contact.
I can't get behind it, though, because I've realized that far from being pro-woman, this is actually incredibly anti-woman. The vaccine is only being mandated for girls. But boys carry HPV as well. If Goodhair really wanted to conquer HPV the same way we've (mostly) conquered TB and polio, then he'd have mandated the vaccine for both boys and girls entering middle school rather than just focusing on the girls. And yes, the vaccine should work for male as well as females. In fact, Scientific American publish a snippet saying that gay British men are demanding the vaccine b/c HPV can also cause anal and penile cancers. By mandating the vaccine only for girls, Goodhair effectively sent the message that first of all, girls' bodies are still not truly their own--that girls essentially lack the same somatic autonomy as boys, and secondly, never mind that boys have it too, girls are the cootie carriers.
Sorry folks, if I had a daughter, I'd probably be all about getting her the vaccine if she wanted it (and I strongly encourage her to want it), but as of now, I think the mandate sucks and Goodhair needs to confine his tyrannical tendencies to Texas toll roads.
On the practical level, because the vaccine is so new, it costs roughly $600 for the series. Many insurance plans don't currently cover it and won't for some time. This means that if you're someone whose insurance won't cover it, you'll have to pay out-of-pocket, and many Texans will simply be unable to afford that kind of expense. Public health programs such as CHIP and Medicaid will already be feeling a significant crunch funding the vaccines for people already enrolled, and this means that the money won't be in those programs for additional people or to fund other health care needs. While I agree it's a public health issue, you can't catch HPV from sitting in the same classroom, riding a bus, getting sneezed on, or even sitting on a toilet seat. Thus, for me, it's simply lower priority than vaccines for things like measles, chicken pox, flu, and all the other bugs that one can catch by incredibly superficial casual contact.
I can't get behind it, though, because I've realized that far from being pro-woman, this is actually incredibly anti-woman. The vaccine is only being mandated for girls. But boys carry HPV as well. If Goodhair really wanted to conquer HPV the same way we've (mostly) conquered TB and polio, then he'd have mandated the vaccine for both boys and girls entering middle school rather than just focusing on the girls. And yes, the vaccine should work for male as well as females. In fact, Scientific American publish a snippet saying that gay British men are demanding the vaccine b/c HPV can also cause anal and penile cancers. By mandating the vaccine only for girls, Goodhair effectively sent the message that first of all, girls' bodies are still not truly their own--that girls essentially lack the same somatic autonomy as boys, and secondly, never mind that boys have it too, girls are the cootie carriers.
Sorry folks, if I had a daughter, I'd probably be all about getting her the vaccine if she wanted it (and I strongly encourage her to want it), but as of now, I think the mandate sucks and Goodhair needs to confine his tyrannical tendencies to Texas toll roads.