Michelle Bachman, The HPV Vaccine And Mental Retardation

[Zaune]

The Guardian

The Republican party's uneasy relationship with science was thrust into the spotlight again after social conservative Michele Bachmann claimed a well-tested anti-cancer vaccine was responsible for "mental retardation".

Bachmann's comments were condemned by medical professionals, including the highly respected American Academy of Pediatrics, which said "this is a life saving vaccine that can protect girls from cervical cancer", while even rightwing talkshow host Rush Limbaugh criticised Bachmann's scare tactics.

During the Republican presidential candidates debate on Monday, Bachmann attacked the frontrunner, Texas governor Rick Perry, for his 2007 order to vaccinate young girls against human papillomavirus (HPV), although Perry's order was never introduced and contained an opt-out clause. (You can watch the clip from the debate here.) (Embedded in the original article, can't find a direct link.)

Assailing Perry for forcing HPV vaccinations on "little girls who have a potentially dangerous reaction to this drug", Bachmann then told NBC's Today show on Tuesday:

I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. It can have very dangerous side effects.

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Without naming Bachmann, Dr Marion Burton, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, issued a statement strongly defending the HPV vaccine: "The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made in the Republican presidential campaign that HPV vaccine is dangerous and can cause mental retardation. There is absolutely no scientific validity to this statement. Since the vaccine has been introduced, more than 35m doses have been administered, and it has an excellent safety record."

Use of the vaccine – marketed by Merck as Gardisil – is backed by the US government's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, while the Federal Drug Authority found in extensive clinical studies that Gardisil was unusually effective, without serious side effects.

Rush Limbaugh chimed in, saying on his daily syndicated radio show that Bachmann had gone too far:

Michele Bachmann, she might have blown it today. Well, not blown it – she might have jumped the shark today. If she'd just left it alone on this vaccination thing from last night.
She's now out saying that this Gardasil drug now causes mental retardation. Somebody in the audience came up to her and told her that – that's jumping the shark on this. There's no evidence that the vaccine causes mental retardation. That's a shame.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Bachmann recorded no opposition to the mandatory use of the Hepatitis B vaccination in Minnesota, where she served for five years in the state legislature before being elected to Congress.

Like HPV, Hepatitis B is spread through intercourse. Yet while the Hepatitis B vaccine is uncontroversial, social conservatives such as Bachmann strongly oppose the use of the HPV vaccine as endorsing promiscuity.

The American Academy of Family Physicians recommends that girls receive the HPV vaccine around the age of 11 or 12, when the vaccine produces the best immune response in the body and before the start of sexual activity.

In the US, nearly 6 million people are infected with HPV each year, while 4,000 women die from cervical cancer.

Regarded as an staunch conservative by any measure, Perry's mandatory vaccination programme – which would have allowed parents to opt out – has been seized upon by his rivals.

Perry defended his intended order as sound policy to prevent cancer, saying: "Texas is a place that, day in and day out, protects life."

But Perry's enthusiasm for protecting life doesn't extend to death row of Texas's prisons, where Perry has approved the execution of 234 people.

Way to go, lady. Andrew fucking Wakefield now looks good by comparison; he might have paid fast and loose with ethics guidelines in collecting his evidence, failed to declare a conflict of interest and above all refused to admit he was wrong in the face of overwhelming evidence, but at least he made an effort to sound like he knew what he was talking about.

[Iroscato]

What is it with her demented penchant for attacking the HPV vaccine?! If you're going to be a crazy raving bitch, at least attck your rivals on something that is valid.

[Knife]

Probably due to HPV implies sexual activity which is a major issue for social conservatives. Of course her position is ridiculous, but I'm pretty sure that's the underlying issue behind this. Don't give HPV vaccine to you're kids, it'll make they dumb and have indiscriminate sex.

[JME2]

* smacks head against desk *

Oy vey, the stupidity...

[Flagg]

So who gave her the HPV vaccine?

[SirNitram]

Oh look. An anti-vacciner. If I didn't encounter plenty outside of politics, I'd be shocked that a GOPer is embracing the propaganda wholeheartedly.

[Elheru Aran]

Probably due to HPV implies sexual activity which is a major issue for social conservatives. Of course her position is ridiculous, but I'm pretty sure that's the underlying issue behind this. Don't give HPV vaccine to you're kids, it'll make they dumb and have indiscriminate sex.

This is basically it. You get the same argument as for why we shouldn't teach sex ed beyond abstinence and why we shouldn't allow kids to pick up free condoms at the school nurse's. The religious conservative ideology is basically centered upon this delusional ideal that everybody can live up to their perfect standard of living if only they'll put in a little effort, guided by the appropriate laws that'll kick their sinful asses if they dare step over the line...

Granted, it's not as if telling kids that they shouldn't be fucking in the first place is a BAD thing, but making it the *only* option available, and barring any way of protecting those kids from the consequences of their stupid young hormonally-driven impulses is morally questionable, to say the least.

[TheHammer]

Probably due to HPV implies sexual activity which is a major issue for social conservatives. Of course her position is ridiculous, but I'm pretty sure that's the underlying issue behind this. Don't give HPV vaccine to you're kids, it'll make they dumb and have indiscriminate sex.

I believe you are exactly right as this was one of the big (only?) "counter-argument" to giving the girls the vaccine, that it would encourage unprotected sex... Because HIV, Herpes, and the thought of getting pregnant apparently would not be enough of a detterent. It's a stupid argument, but that never stopped a Fundy GOPer before.

[bobalot]

The Republican party is proudly the party of anti-science (with a few exceptions like Huntsman). If the party keeps moving to the far right fringe, I would expect more of this type of nuttiness to come out.

[FSTargetDrone]

A challenge!

Posted on Thu, Sep. 15, 2011

Penn ethicist challenges Michele Bachmann

By Marie McCullough

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Presidential aspirant Michele Bachmann has a reputation for being gaffe-prone, but her latest comments so incensed University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan that he has challenged her to put her money where her mouth is.

Bachmann told Fox News and the Today Show earlier this week that she had heard from a distraught mother whose daughter "suffered mental retardation" as a result of receiving the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine.

Caplan used Twitter and email to announce that he would donate $10,000 to the charity of Bachmann's choice "if she can produce a case in one week... verified by three medical experts that she and I pick of a woman who became 'retarded' (her words) due to the vaccine."

"She must donate 10K to a charity I pick if she fails to do so," Caplan added.

He was inspired by a colleague.

Steven Miles, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine - where Caplan used to be his boss - on Tuesday used Facebook to offer $1,000 for "a properly signed medical release" verifying Bachmann's anecdote.

"He upped the ante, so obviously he's doing well," Miles quipped.

On Thursday, Bachmann's press secretary Alice Stewart said she had not seen any reward offer and so couldn't comment.

Stewart said the Bachmann's vaccine comments, made Monday during a debate with GOP presidential candidates, were aimed at Rick Perry. As Texas governor, Perry signed an executive order - later overturned by the legislature - mandating that 12-year-old girls receive the vaccine, which protects against the virus that causes cervical cancer.

"The point she was making was the fact that Gov. Perry exceeded his executive privilege. He bypassed the legislative process," Stewart said.

Of course, Bachmann cannot possibly accept.