After joining the 2012 GOP Debate panel about a week ago, Texas Governor Rick Perry was attacked by other presidential contenders for mandating an HPV vaccine in Texas.
When the dust settled, Perry had even attacked his own stance on the issue. But he should’ve stood his ground – the policy was progressive and logical.
The executive order to vaccinate sixth-grade girls against the Human Papaloma Virus has been touted as a measure to prevent cervical cancer.
But some people were probably surprised that Perry was the one championing the notion that Big Government should stick its nose into health care issues in the first place.
In 2007, Perry gave an executive order requiring girls be injected with the vaccine.
His justification for the mandate was that state government needed to take a role in preventing disease.
Not like it really mattered. The order was quickly overturned by the Texas State Legislature.
There’s little doubt the vaccine is a good idea. Cervical cancer is one of the leading killers of women, after all.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say all girls aged 11 to 12 should be vaccinated to prevent cervical cancer.
Also, parents in Texas were allowed to opt out of the “mandated” vaccine for their daughters.
Not to mention that some shots, such as those for meningitis and hepatitis B, are already administered to children as prerequisites for enrolling in school.
Bottom line, the policy should not have been overturned.
For Perry to have mandated the vaccine to begin with seems like an out-of-left-field move for him.
Perry, the fierce opponent of Social Security (calling it a Ponzi scheme) has also been a critic of Obamacare. Perry’s plan – to let states control Medicare instead of the federal government, should turn some heads.
The vaccine mandate is perfect fodder for the other GOP runners trying to gain the go-ahead from the party.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann tore into the issue in previous debates, claiming that the vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. She was probably exaggerating how traumatic getting the shot would be for girls.
Would it be momentarily uncomfortable? Yeah.
But would it be “flat-out wrong,” as Bachman said?
We think not.
Nonetheless, Perry has done an about face, denouncing his decision to mandate the vaccinations.
“If I had it to do over again, I would have done it differently,” he said.
Stephanie • Sep 17, 2011 at 6:21 PM
I’m a staunch supporter of vaccinations but I feel that Perry was wrong to issue the mandate for the HPV vaccine. While it is true that many if not all public schools require students to receive certain vaccinations before attending, but that’s due to the contagious nature of the diseases in question. Parents who refuse the HPV vaccine are not endangering the lives of children other than their own, as is the case in the argument for required vaccines. Hepatitis shots, measles, mumps, and rubella- these can be spread very quickly among children. Cervical cancer, however, is not transmissible from human contact. All the governor should be able to do is support the campaign for the vaccine and ask that parents recognize its benefits, but it is not his place to make it a mandatory vaccine for school-age children.