Cervical Cancer Vaccine Article
Now to be fair, I am a little weary of vaccines in general. And I am no virologist. But, read a book or two on the subject and I'm sure you will be leery too. Not to say that I don't vaccinate my children at all... I have chosen to do so with certain restrictions and some of my own input into the age at which they receive them etc.
Anyway, this whole cervical cancer vaccine as me a little worried. Why are we vaccinating against something tat the immune system fights off an estimated 90% of the time? And, if you are adding the numbers... It only fights 4 of the almost 80 known strains of HPV. And two of those don't cause cancer, they cause genital warts (the ones that don't cause visible damage are the bad boys). So, of the 3-4 thousand women in the US who get cervical cancer each year about 70% of them have one of the two strains in the vaccine. And the vaccine is about 97% effective... So, not some statistics person may be able to correct me here... But doesn't that mean we want to vaccinate all young women (they are shooting to do ages 12-14) to prevent about 2,037-2,716 cases per year assuming the vaccine is really that effective in reality? Sorry kids... I am not buying it. Also, what if women just assume that since they are vaccinated they can forget about pap smears? Not to mention the whole tone of "Well we all know you can't trust young girls so let's vaccinate them all."
Why are we so flippant about what we are injecting into our bodies? What about building a healthy immune system? What about the side effects of vaccines? When are the pharmaceutical companies in this country going to stop convincing us we nee to fill ourselves with their chemicals? Take a look at all the things we "need" now. How many times have you seen a commercial for some medication to treat something which used to be considered something you just dealt with as you aged of encountered it in your life for whatever reason?
I just cringe every time I pick up a parenting magazine with an ad for these new super combined vaccines (they have been indicated in many vaccine reactions). Yes, shoot your poor little infant's developing immune system with the maximum number of viruses and chemicals all at the same time! Great idea! Humph.
I'm not saying vaccines have no place or use in our lives. I think some of them are worth the risk... But I wish the government would just step off already. If you can convince parents of the necessity and the safety and they comply, great. But making chicken pox mandatory... Please. It seems like now that we are targeting just any illness we can... And I wonder what kind of things we are unleashing from Pandora's box by doing that.
Two Comics that go together…from 2008
7 years ago
5 comments:
vaccines are a gift from god. we have no small pox any more! polio is on it's way out!
cervical cancer is a crap cancer to get. the number of cases of it is going to rise over the next 10 - 15 years if we look at how genital warts has exploded: unfortunately in the real world you don't just get one strain of the virus at a time, and (i'm generalising) someone who has one encounter leading to virus-contraction is more likely to contract another strain than someone who hasn't.
there are some things our bodies just can't 'fight off', no matter how hard we 'develop our own immune system'.
the preliminary research has been promising. vaccines ahoy!
the only query i have is that yet again we're focusing on medical prophylaxis rather than education about using condoms etc etc... although it's hoped that when ppl go for their vaccine they'll get handed some leaflet or s/thing.
Did you hear about the shingles vax that came out last week? Brilliant - vaccinate against something that is a really mild, normal childhood affliction (chicken pox), then create a vax to address the side-effects of having a population that does not get chicken pox naturally.
No thanks.
Yea, but now that we know the chicken pox vaccine doesn't protect against shingles we have to do someting... Like I say Pandora's box. Just leave things that aren't life treatening alone I say.
I find that the people who are totally pro-Vaccine, have never delved into the books and research out there. Are they scared of what they will find to be true?
Oh, and by the way... small pox was erradicated mostly by sanitation and food quality. Small pox actually increased after the introduction of mandatory vaccines. Do your research.
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