Gotta roll up your sleeve in Rhode Island:
"Parents protest R.I. mandating HPV vaccine for teens" by Felice J. Freyer Globe Staff September 08, 2015
Seventh-graders in Rhode Island started school this year under a new mandate rarely seen in the country: Girls and boys must be vaccinated against HPV — the human papillomavirus — a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cancer.
The move sparked protests from parents, who resented a school requirement to immunize against a disease that spreads through sex rather than anything that could be transmitted in the classroom.
Despite the uproar, public health officials in Massachusetts are watching Rhode Island’s move. If it succeeds, Massachusetts may want to take the same route to boost the use of a vaccine that has long been a hard sell, said Kevin Cranston, director of the state’s Bureau of Infectious Disease.
“We’re going to be very intrigued by the Rhode Island mandate experience,” Cranston said.
(Blog editor just shakes head how deeply the pharmaceutical indu$try and its mind-bending drugs and potions have been ingrained into AmeriKan culture. It is both astonishing and frightening. Their lobby is right up there at the top, that's for $ure)
So far, that experience has included a protest rally, a 2,400-member Facebook group fighting the mandate, a local School Committee asking for repeal, and complaints from across the ideological spectrum — with both the American Civil Liberties Union and a local conservative group in opposition. One opponent’s online video was deemed so threatening that the health director canceled the last two informational forums at the end of August.
Even if not taking sides, one can see the familiar script of demonization regarding those who fail to fall lock step in line with the plans of benevolent authority.
But Rhode Island health officials have held firm, believing they can increase the HPV vaccination rate in a state that already boasts the highest rate in the nation.
“Our goal is that, over time, parents will become comfortable and familiar with the benefits of this vaccine,” said Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, Rhode Island’s health director. She noted that the hepatitis B vaccine, given to babies, also protects against a sexually transmitted disease.
Until now in Rhode Island, the HPV vaccine was the only immunization recommended by the federal government but not required for school attendance.
As with all required immunizations, Rhode Island parents can exempt their children from the HPV vaccine by signing a form. But even with this opt-out, linking school attendance to vaccination has been shown to increase immunization rates because it encourages visits and discussions with pediatricians, said Alexander-Scott.
That is when I initially stopped reading.
HPV can cause cancers of the cervix, anus, head, or neck — but usually not until adulthood. Doctors want to give the vaccine before children are at risk of being infected and when their young immune systems can generate the most robust protection.
Jennifer Gallant of Tiverton, R.I., was incensed when she learned of the HPV requirement, which the Rhode Island Health Department adopted after little-noticed public hearings last year.
That's the way they do things in our "democratic Republic."
“I didn’t like the state telling me that I have to do this vaccine,” she said. “I don’t think that should be their concern.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Still, Gallant has nothing against the vaccine, saying her own research found it to be safe and beneficial, and her teenage daughters are getting vaccinated.
Then she is a fraud, specially selected for this piece -- if she even exists at all.
Like most parents, Gallant also doesn’t object to the school requirement for the other two vaccines recommended for adolescents: meningitis and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis. Those were mandated in 2009 without controversy.
Related: Child hospitalized with viral meningitis
Just want to prove the point, now extend you arm.
Still, in Rhode Island, as elsewhere, the number of teenagers who get the HPV vaccine lags far behind the other two vaccines recommended for that age group.
The HPV vaccine has always stood apart.
“From early on, this vaccine was sort of carved out from other vaccines and treated a little differently because it’s for a sexually transmitted infection,” said Gregory D. Zimet, an Indiana University School of Medicine psychologist who has studied attitudes toward the HPV vaccine.
I'm sorry, but the AmeriKan ejewkhazion $y$tem has been taken over by greedy and perverted administrators and staff imposing a sick and twisted version of political correctness upon them.
Additionally, Zimet said, “You’re vaccinating 11- and 12-year-olds to prevent something that might not become an issue for 10, 20, 30 years. It’s hard for people to see the connection and feel it as strongly.”
It doesn’t help that Gardasil, the trade name for the HPV vaccine, launched amid controversy.
In 2006, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccine for 11- and 12-year-old girls, as three doses given six months apart. (Boys were added in 2009.)
That is why I wouldn't want it. I no longer trust the CDC.
But when Texas Governor Rick Perry required HPV vaccination for girls entering middle school, the state Legislature overturned it — after it was revealed that Gardasil’s manufacturer had contributed to Perry’s reelection campaign and lobbied legislators.
Who?
Meanwhile, in 2007, 24 state legislatures and Washington, D.C., considered requiring HPV vaccines for school attendance, but only Washington, D.C., and Virginia enacted a mandate, and no other state had done so since. In Virginia, the rule applies only to girls, and it specifies that parents “may elect for the child not to receive the HPV vaccine,” no form needed. Washington, D.C., has a requirement similar to Rhode Island’s.
When parents decide whether to vaccinate their children, a strong recommendation from their children’s doctor can make all the difference, said Melissa Gilkey, a behavioral scientist in Harvard Medical School’s Department of Population Medicine, who studies adolescent health and cancer prevention. But a 2013 survey found that health care professionals recommended the HPV vaccine to barely two-thirds of girls’ parents and fewer than half of boys’ parents.
“Our research suggests that some providers find the conversation uncomfortable,” Gilkey said. “They don’t recommend the vaccine with the same strength as they would other adolescent vaccines.”
Alexander-Scott said she’s not convinced most Rhode Islanders oppose the vaccine, despite the protests. The state, which buys childhood vaccines at no cost to parents, has long had one of the highest childhood immunization rates in the country.
“The overall sense is that parents support vaccines and want their children to be healthy,” Alexander-Scott said.
Amid the protests, others came out in support.
This article awfully one-$ided, isn't it?
Dr. Katina Robison, a women’s cancer specialist with Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, spoke out about the toll of cervical cancer, even when it’s caught early.
Dr. Richard K. Ohnmacht, a Cranston, R.I., pediatrician who wrote an op-ed piece in the Providence Journal in favor, said in an interview that his very few patients refuse the vaccine at his practice.
But news of the mandate created a platform for vaccine opponents, who told stories of illnesses they linked to the vaccine, despite data showing side effects to be extremely rare.
Data from who?
I'm somehow supposed to trust an agenda-pushing liar of a media? Making me relapse.
Karen Ferris, of Portsmouth, R.I., followed her pediatrician’s advice. Before she even knew there would be a school requirement, her daughter, 12, received the first two doses. But some of the opponents’ arguments made sense to her and now she’s questioning whether her daughter should get the final dose.
“A 12-year-old is not going to be going out and having sex and contracting an STD,” Ferris said.
Are you sure these days? Some school pervert could get a hold of them and, well, you know. Or some other abuser, right?
Will the Rhode Island mandate backfire?
They usually do; people have an innate revulsion toward being told what to do, especially with the insides of their bodies.
It could, said Zimet, the Indiana University psychologist, but his money is on success.
Yeah, that is what is at the bottom of every goddamn article in my pre$$.
“I think it will work,” he said. “If the policy stays in place, it will become routine and some of the heat will go away.”
And what diseases will the little boys and girls develop as they mushroom into adulthood.
--more--"
My last vaccination for that was in 2011, and surely the death toll has risen.
Also see: Study says doctors passively discourage HPV vaccines
Even they are getting it, and you will have to decide whom to believe for yourself!
Good luck with the lawsuit:
"Two Rhode Island universities have come up with a way to cut the time it takes for students to earn a law degree. Johnson and Wales University and Roger Williams University School of Law announced the program on Thursday. Under the terms, Johnson and Wales students who meet specific criteria will be allowed to apply for admission to the law program at Roger Williams during their third year. If accepted, they will then earn their Johnson and Wales degree by completing their first year of studies at Roger Williams Law. Then, they can complete their law degree, and along the way save one year of tuition (AP)."
Related: Bar exam scores continuing to fall
Think there is a connection?
Related: Vt. residents may turn to religion to avoid vaccinations
That place is getting more redneck every day.
Is Bernie really from up there?
"UN aims to eradicate malaria by 2040" Associated Press September 29, 2015
LONDON — Malaria could be wiped out by 2040 despite the lack of an effective vaccine, previous failed attempts to eradicate the disease, and drug resistance problems, the United Nations and Microsoft founder Bill Gates said in a report released Monday.
Gates and Ray Chambers, the UN secretary general’s special envoy for malaria, said getting rid of the parasitic disease could ultimately save 11 million lives and provide $2 trillion in economic benefits.
Officials are also still struggling to wipe out guinea worm and polio — smallpox is the only disease to have been eradicated.
And scientists are playing with that in the government laboratories.
Of course, if you eradicate something.... no constant "cures" to sell. Drug and vaccine makers have learned over the centuries in this $y$tem now dominated by dough.
‘‘It’s good to be ambitious in global health, but this is another ambition that misses a crucial element of delivering on such goals: health systems,’’ said Sophie Harman, a public health expert at Queen Mary University in London. ‘‘Grand and glitzy eradication campaigns overlook the real necessity of financing everyday health systems.’’
Harman also doubted whether the 2040 goal was realistic, citing the previously missed polio targets. WHO had originally hoped to get rid of polio by 2000....
I once believed in the benevolence of organizations like the UN and WHO, but now.... (sniffle?).
--more--"
I know an old lady who swallowed a.... mosquito?
"The first license to develop a bird flu vaccine has been awarded by the US Department of Agriculture, a crucial step toward preventing another devastating outbreak like the one that led to the destruction of 48 million chickens and turkeys this spring. The conditional license authorizes Harrisvaccines to continue testing the vaccine’s effectiveness and stand ready if the USDA gives the order to begin manufacturing. The vaccine has not yet been approved. It targets the H5N2 virus. The company’s process, licensed last year by the USDA for the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, which wiped out millions of pigs, eliminates the need to handle live viruses, making the vaccine safer. Harrisvaccines will be able to update the vaccine quickly if the H5N2 virus mutates. It’s also detectable in poultry as a vaccine, which means trade partners can tell the difference between an infected animal and one that has been vaccinated, possibly preventing some countries from refusing US poultry."
I can't remember the last time the Globe served poultry.
"Dozens of cats have been removed from a now-condemned Rhode Island home. Animal control officers said many of the at least 70 cats required veterinary care when they were pulled from the Charlestown home Monday. All were infested with fleas. Many are at a local animal shelter, though some had to be euthanized. Authorities said several cats were breeding inside the house, which is now boarded up. Seven people had been living there, one of whom was treated for anxiety when police arrived. Authorities said there was no sign that the animals were neglected and the owner is not facing charges (AP)."
The change of cat litter cleans up Rhode Island, too.
