Texas Makes Vaccine the Law!

Texas Governor Rick Perry recently signed an executive order requiring schoolgirls to receive the Gardasil vaccine against cervical cancer. Gardasil is made by Merck. Here’s a surprise — Governor Perry’s order has gotten the backing of Gardasil’s maker, Merck. Gee, I can’t figure that out! I wonder if Merck dabbles in politics, too. Hmmm, I think I did read an article recently that reported that Merck had doubled its lobbying budget in Texas. This is scary, folks. Don’t think they’ll stop in Texas, and don’t think they’ll stop at Gardasil. What’s next?

The good governor said it (the required vaccination) “makes good economic sense.” How true. I wish I had owned some Merck stock before the governor made the announcement! Somebody’s going to make a pile of money when the government starts making it the law that we must use a company’s products. The vaccine costs about $360 for a three-shot regimen. $360 times the number of schoolgirls in America. A tidy increase in gross revenue for Merck, mandated by government. Aside from making “good economic sense” for Merck and its allies, I wonder if it makes “good health sense” for the girls forced to receive the vaccine. I wish we average citizens could afford to lobby.

In an “unrelated” bit of news, it has recently been announced by the FDA that there have been 28 cases of dangerous twisting of the intestines in infants who received a newly-approved (by the FDA) vaccine against rotavirus. The FDA (which approved the vaccine) was quick to assure us that these cases “could” have occurred “naturally” and that these numbers were not in excess of the number expected to occur “naturally” each year. Whew! I feel better about it now. Oh, the vaccine is produced by . . . Merck.