8 weeks pregnant

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

söndag 18 februari 2007

The HPV vaccine

Posted on 18:17 by Unknown
Okay, okay, gettin' some emails from people asking what I think of Gardasil, the new vaccine that supposedly guards against some strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) that can cause cervical cancer.

The shots cost $360 and were recently made mandatory for girls (why only girls when boys also carry the virus?) In Texas where, not coincidentally, the ex-chief-of-staff to the governor is--surprise!--now a lobbyist for Merck. No surprise Merck is lobbying other states to make the vaccine mandatory (# of girls x $360 = big profits). If something's mandatory, why do we allow drug companies to make profits? Serious conflict of interest here.

I don't really know about long-term side effects, partly because they haven't done any long-term studies and I don't know if they plan to. Bottom line, here's are article from the NY Times' BUSINESS section on how desperate they are to sell this vaccine. All I know is I don't want lobbyists, advertisers, and politicians making MY healthcare decisions. Eeeek!

THE toughest girl on television isn’t on a show or in a music video. She’s in a drug advertisement. Dressed in an indie-rocker T-shirt, furrowing her fierce, Kahloesque brows and scowling, she says, “I want to be one less woman who will battle cervical cancer.” Cut to a garage, or maybe a basement, where she’s whacking the drums like Tommy Ramone. Then to a shot of her leaning back, nonchalantly flipping a drumstick: “One less,” she says levelly, as if you’re going to argue with her. She’s the coolest girl in the room, whatever room she’s in.

This vision of do-it-yourself authenticity is flogging Gardasil, a vaccine intended to protect women against some strains of the human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease that has been linked to 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. Manufactured by Merck, Gardasil was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June. The vaccine is available as a series of three shots, costing a total of $360.

A vaccine against cancer: it sounds like the easiest sell in the world. But Gardasil, which can be administered only to girls and women ages 9 to 26, has an audience problem. It has to sell itself to young women"
...

The mothers appear about halfway through, and they’ve got bad news. In loving tones they break it to their daughters: “Gardasil may not fully protect everyone.” they say. Tenderly they list the side effects.

This is an ingenious ploy: The cool girls want to be “one less”; the moms are the ones putting on the brakes. Having mothers voice the downside of Gardasil reinforces the message that if you get this vaccination, you’re a rebellious, independent thinker:

“Forget the side effects. Forget Mom. I’m gettin’ vaccinated.”


Let my Eeeeeeeeeek cascade down the canyons and to the rivers...

Read more here.

As always, you can use mine:

USERNAME: GreenFertility
PASSWORD: GreenFertility
Answer to secret question: Soylent Green
Skicka med e-postBlogThis!Dela på XDela på Facebook
Posted in | No comments
Senaste inlägg Äldre inlägg Startsida

0 kommentarer:

Skicka en kommentar

Prenumerera på: Kommentarer till inlägget (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Korean adoption: domestic adoptions going up?
    There is a growing movement in Korea to encourage domestic, instead of foreign, adoption. This could be a welcome trend. I still think the...
  • Consume for the cause?
    Yesterday we spoke of breast cancer, which made me think about how I never understood how buying some chemical-laden lipstick with a pink ri...
  • 'Lab-made sperm' fertility hope
    (image: BBC) To go with the earlier post about the artificial womb . Now, we're finally almost at the point where we can remove humans ...
  • Mammograms: more complicated than meets the eye
    My midwives hate it when it's time for my yearly checkup because we get into a gigantic fight about mammograms, which they believe every...
  • The Occasional CELEBRITY FERTILITY column: Madonna adopts a "Colorful" Child
    In an earlier post I wrote about how according to the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, Angelina Jolie's adoption of a child from E...
  • Red Seaweed as HPV/cervical cancer preventative
    The Triple Helix is a magazine of young scientists/med students/etc. that's published here at Brown, and I find it really well done and...
  • Review: Living Harvest Hemp Oil
    My beady little eyes always light up when a company goes to the trouble to put their products in glass--yes! Living Harvest makes a raw, e...
  • The Downward Flow...
    Thi is from the Seventh Generation site The Non-Toxic Times Newsletter - Seventh Generation : "Riding the Crimson Highway With Aunt Flo...
  • Adoption and Fertility
    Last night on the panel, interestingly, the two adoptive parents tried to conceive, decided they were infertile, then turned to internationa...
  • US toddler burnt in park attack
    This is pretty unbelievable. Plus, it underscores that while the government is busy protecting us from Vitamin C, nothing's done about ...

Categories

  • big pharma
  • big pharma legislation supplements compounded medicine lobbyists
  • chickenpox
  • Gardasil
  • HPV
  • Merck
  • reviews candles soy wax
  • reviews health food bars
  • vaccines
  • wal-mart big box retailers China labor

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2007 (144)
    • ►  september (5)
    • ►  augusti (15)
    • ►  juli (17)
    • ►  juni (10)
    • ►  maj (15)
    • ►  april (20)
    • ►  mars (21)
    • ▼  februari (20)
      • Fluorescent Bulbs--good outweighs bad???
      • More on the poor bees--"canaries"in the coal mine?
      • Green Fertility's Recommended Fish Oils
      • Omega 3 Fish Oil Safer Than Fish
      • Downsizer: for a sustainable & ethical future - In...
      • Hi kiddies,Natural Family Online requested a repri...
      • Lead-filled Lunchbox coverup
      • The HPV vaccine
      • More Research on Coffee and Pregnancy
      • Happy Valentine's Day!
      • Dying bees-- so sad!
      • REVIEW: Pangea Organics toner
      • Is Your Shampoo Making You Fat while Ruining the E...
      • Another reason, #1,234,543 not to shop at Wal-mart...
      • Hey kids! Do try this at Home--DIY shitakes
      • A Little Dishing from the FertilityBitch: Meg Ryan
      • Treehugger sends blog love, we send it back
      • Kimchi instructions
      • People with Korean-y blood, listen up
      • KIMCHI recipe is coming. I just need to get a gra...
    • ►  januari (21)
  • ►  2006 (227)
    • ►  december (21)
    • ►  november (21)
    • ►  oktober (17)
    • ►  september (25)
    • ►  augusti (24)
    • ►  juli (32)
    • ►  juni (35)
    • ►  maj (40)
    • ►  april (12)
Använder Blogger.

Om mig

Unknown
Visa hela min profil